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John Mack Faragher

ジョン・マック・ファラガー

John Mack Faragher

Profile

Gender
Male
Born
1945-01-01 （Phoenix, Arizona, United States）
Nationality
United States
Languages
English
Residence History
Phoenix, Arizona (birth) → Southern California (raised) → South Hadley, Massachusetts (Mount Holyoke College) → New Haven, Connecticut (Yale University)

Career

Occupations
Historian, Author, Professor (Emeritus)
Active Years
1977-2016
Affiliations
Mount Holyoke College, Yale University (Howard R. Lamar Professorship; involved in founding the Howard R. Lamar Center), Howard R. Lamar Center for the Study of Frontiers and Borders (founding/directing)
Influenced By
Howard R. Lamar

Education

University of California, Riverside
Degree: B.A.
Period: 1963–1967
Year of Graduation: 1967
Country: United States
Undergraduate studies in history (specific major not detailed)
Yale University
History
Degree: Ph.D.
Period: 1970s (在学期間の詳細不明)
Year of Graduation: 1977
Country: United States
Received the John Addison Porter Prize for dissertation (1977)

Awards

John Addison Porter Prize
1977
Work: Dissertation
Organization: Yale University
Result: 受賞
Frederick Jackson Turner Award
1980
Work: Women and Men on the Overland Trail
Organization: Organization of American Historians
Result: 受賞
Annual Book Prize (Society for Historians of the Early American Republic)
1987
Work: Sugar Creek: Life on the Illinois Prairie
Organization: Society for Historians of the Early American Republic
Result: 受賞
Los Angeles Times Book Prize (Biography)
1993
Work: Daniel Boone: The Life and Legend of an American Pioneer
Category: 伝記
Organization: Los Angeles Times
Result: 受賞
Governor's Award (State of Kentucky)
1995
Work: Daniel Boone
Organization: State of Kentucky
Result: 受賞
Caughey Western History Association Prize
2001
Work: The American West: A New Interpretive History
Organization: Western History Association
Result: 受賞
Western Heritage Award
2000
Work: The American West
Organization: National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum
Result: 受賞
Norman Neuerburg Award
2017
Work: Eternity Street: Violence and Justice in Frontier Los Angeles
Organization: Historical Society of Southern California
Result: 受賞

Awards & Nominations

Works

Major Works

Women and Men on the Overland Trail

1979 History (Social history)

A study of mid-19th-century westward migrants that reconstructs gender roles and everyday life from family records and primary sources, challenging masculine-centered frontier narratives.

MigrationGenderEveryday life

Sugar Creek: Life on the Illinois Prairie

1986 History (Microhistory) 280 pages

A microhistorical analysis of a small Illinois farming community, detailing how settlers adapted to the prairie environment and established enduring social structures.

Community formationAgrarian societyAdaptation

Daniel Boone: The Life and Legend of an American Pioneer

1993 Biography / Cultural history 429 pages

A meticulous reconstruction of Daniel Boone's life combined with cultural history, analyzing Boone's evolving place in American mythology and the context of his mythmaking.

MythmakingColonial expansionNative American relations

A Great and Noble Scheme: The Tragic Story of the Expulsion of the French Acadians from their American Homeland

2005 History (Colonial history)

A detailed account of the 18th-century forced removal of the French Acadians by British colonial authorities, highlighting the human costs and reframing the event within settler-colonial policy.

Forced migrationColonialismExpulsion

Eternity Street: Violence and Justice in Frontier Los Angeles

2016 History (Urban & social history)

Examines criminal cases, community conflict, and practices of punishment in 19th-century Los Angeles to illuminate the formation of legal institutions and social order.

ViolenceLegal institutionsUrbanization

The American West: A New Interpretive History

2000 History (Synthesis)

A thematic, inclusive synthesis of Western history integrating Indigenous, environmental, and transnational perspectives; widely used as a textbook and reference.

Inclusive historyIndigenous historyEnvironmental history

California: An American History

2025 History (State history)

Traces California's evolution from geologic origins and Indigenous cultures to its present-day diversity, emphasizing migration and cultural encounters shaping the state.

State historyEcological diversityMigration history

Bibliography

  • Women and Men on the Overland Trail (1979)
  • Sugar Creek: Life on the Illinois Prairie (1986)
  • Daniel Boone: The Life and Legend of an American Pioneer (1993)
  • The Encyclopedia of Colonial and Revolutionary America (ed., 1996)
  • The American Heritage Encyclopedia of American History (ed., 1998)
  • The American West: A New Interpretive History (with Robert V. Hine, 2000)
  • A Great and Noble Scheme (2005)
  • Frontiers: A Short History of the American West (2007)
  • Eternity Street (2016)
  • The American West (2nd ed., 2017)
  • California: An American History (2025)

Style & Themes

Literary Style
Archival, primary-source-based scholarshipScholarly yet accessible prose for general readers
Recurring Motifs
Frontiers and bordersMigration and cultural encountersPerspectives of marginalized groups

Legacy

One of the leading historians reinterpreting the American West. Known for archival social-history research and accessible scholarship, he has influenced both teaching and research through award-winning books and widely used syntheses.

Academic Societies

  • Organization of American Historians
  • Western History Association
  • Society for Historians of the Early American Republic

Trivia

  • Born in 1945; raised in Southern California as the eldest of eight children.
  • Officially retired from teaching in 2016 but remains active in research and writing.