Pekka Hämäläinen (historian)
Pekka Johannes Hämäläinen (born 1967, Helsinki) is a Finnish professor and author of a prize-winning book,[1] The Comanche Empire, published in 2008.[2] Since 2012 he has been the Rhodes Professor of American History at the University of Oxford.[3][4] He was formerly in the History Department at University of California at Santa Barbara.[5]
Life
Hämäläinen was born and raised in Helsinki, Finland. It wasn't until high school, and an inspiring teacher, that he realized he actually liked history, his core interest being Native American history. At university Hämäläinen majored in history and trained to become a secondary history teacher. After finishing his M.A. he began work on his Ph.D.
He graduated from University of Helsinki, with a Ph.D. in 2001. He taught at Texas A&M University from 2002 to 2004. His work has appeared in the American Historical Review, Journal of American History, William and Mary Quarterly, and the Western Historical Quarterly.[6][7] He taught in the History Department at University of California, Santa Barbara before moving to Oxford University.
In 2019 Hämäläinen published a book about history of the Lakota beginning in the seventeenth century through the twentieth century.
Awards
- 2009 Bancroft Prize
- 2008 Kate Brocks Bates Award
- 2009 Merle Curti Award[8][9]
- 2009 Cundill Prize, runner-up
- 2009 Caughey Western History Association Prize
Works
- The Comanche Empire. New Haven, CT; Yale University Press. 2008. 512 pages. ISBN 978-0300151176.
- When Disease Makes History: Epidemics and Great Historical Turning Points. Helsinki, Finland; Yliopistopaino Printing Services. 2006. 314 pages. ISBN 978-9515706409.
- with Benjamin H. Johnson. Major Problems in the History of North American Borderlands. Boston, MA; Cengage Learning. 2011. 568 pages. ISBN 978-0495916925.
- Lakota America; A New History of Indigenous Power. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press. 2019. 542 pages. ISBN 978-0300215953.[10]
References
- Chabolla, Tony. "Prof. Hämäläinen's The Comanche Empire indeed garners its **twelfth** award – Department of History, UC Santa Barbara". Retrieved 2020-02-22.
- The Comanche Empire. New Haven, CT; Yale University Press. 2008. ISBN 978-0300151176
- "Professor Pekka Hämäläinen". University of Oxford Faculty of History. Retrieved 9 December 2017.
- "Pekka has been appointed". iea-nantes.fr. Retrieved 20 September 2018.
- "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2010-01-10. Retrieved 2009-12-28.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
- https://www.mcgill.ca/cundillprize/shortlist/biographies/%5B%5D
- "The Politics of Grass: European Expansion, Ecological Change, and Indigenous Power in the Southwest Borderlands". The William and Mary Quarterly. 67 (2): 173. 2010. doi:10.5309/willmaryquar.67.2.173.
- Yale University Press
- http://www.indiancountrytoday.com/national/42146272.html
- "'Lakota America' Puts the Tribe of Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse Front and Center". New York Times. 22 October 2019.