Roy F. Nichols
Personal Information
Description
Nichols was Dean of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences and Vice-Provost of the University of Pennsylvania, and one of the United States’ distinguished historians. He was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in history in 1949 for his book, Disruption of the American Democracy. Dr. Nichols’ early interest in political history led him to specialize in a study of the Democratic party on the eve of the Civil War and resulted in the publication of The Democratic Machine, 1850-1854. His other books include a biography of Franklin Pierce, America Yesterday and Today (with Charles A. Beard and W. C. Bagley), and several works written in collaboration with his wife, Jeannette P. Nichols. As member of the editorial board of American Heritage, Dr. Nichols served as chairman of the Social Science Research Council and as a member of the advisory committee in social science of the U.S. Civil Service Commission. He earned a Ph.D. at Columbia University and was awarded honorary degrees by Franklin and Marshall College, Rutgers, and Cambridge University—of which he was elected fellow of Trinity College.
Books
The stakes of power, 1845-1877
Few Americans in the early 1800s dreamed that the next two decades would see a growth in tensions that would lead to civil war. War did come, and during the succeeding century that was, its causes, its military history, and its aftermath, have been endlessly fascinating to Americans. The stakes of power, which won an Anthenacum of Philadelhia book award in 1961, is an account of this period.