Mary Beth Norton 
Mary Donlon Alger Professor of American History
Office: 325 McGraw Hall
Phone: (607) 255-7542
Fax: (607) 255-0469
E-Mail: mbn1@cornell.edu
BIO
Office Hours: Wednesday: 9:30-10:45am
Research and Teaching Interests
Since the early 1980s I have focused on a large-scale project that is now coming to fruition: an examination of the interplay of gender, society, and politics in America from the beginnings of settlement to approximately 1750. These works, taken together, in effect constitute the ‘prequel’ to my 1980 monograph, Liberty’s Daughters: The Revolutionary Experience of American Women, 1750-1800. Thus far I have published two books—Founding Mothers & Fathers: Gendered Power and the Forming of American Society (1996) and In the Devil’s Snare: The Salem Witchcraft Crisis of 1692 (2002)—as a part of this project. On sabbatical leave in 2008-9 at the Huntington Library I completed the first draft of the last volume in the series, "Separated by their Sex: Anglo-American Women and the Origins of the Public/Private Divide, 1640-1760." During the 2009-10 academic year I completed revisions of that work, which is forthcoming from Cornell University Press in spring 2011. For my next project, I plan to return to the revolutionary era, the subject of Liberty’s Daughters and of my first book (my revised dissertation), The British-Americans: The Loyalist Exiles in England, 1774-1789 (1972).
I am also excited about co-teaching the new course History/Astronomy 1700, History of Exploration: Land, Sea, Space, with Steve Squyres, principal investigator for the Mars rovers, in fall 2010.
Courses
| Fall 2011: | HIST 1700 |
History of Exploration: Land, Sea, and Space Syllabus |
|---|---|---|
HIST 2090 |
The Salem Witchcraft Crisis of 1692 Syllabus | |
| Spring 2012: | HIST 2730 |
Women in American Society, Past and Present Syllabus |
HIST 4211/6261 |
Seminar on the American Revolution Syllabus |
Other Courses Taught at Cornell University
HIST 2090 Seminar in Early America
HIST 2720 Atlantic World
HIST 2730
Women in American Society, Past and Present
HIST 3210 The Origins of Multicultural America
HIST 3250
The Age of American Revolution, 1754-1815
Undergraduate lecture forthcoming: History of Exploration
Education
Ph.D. Harvard University, 1969
M.A. Harvard University, 1965
B.A. University of Michigan, 1964
Books and Recent Awards
Books:
In the Devil’s Snare: The Salem Witchcraft Crisis of 1692 (Alfred A. Knopf, 2002; Vintage paperback, 2003).
Founding Mothers & Fathers: Gendered Power and the Forming of American Society (Alfred A. Knopf, 1996; Vintage paperback, 1997).
ed., The American Historical Association's Guide to Historical Literature, 3d ed. (Oxford University Press, 1995).
ed., Major Problems in American Women's History (1st ed. D.C. Heath, 1989; 2d ed. [with Ruth Alexander], Houghton Mifflin, 1995; 3d ed. [with Ruth Alexander], Houghton Mifflin, 2003; 4th ed. [with Ruth Alexander], Houghton Mifflin, 2007.
ed. (with Carol Groneman), To Toil the Livelong Day: America's Women at Work, 1790‑1980 (Cornell University Press, 1987).
(with 5 others) A People and a Nation (Houghton Mifflin, 1st ed., l982; 2nd ed., 1986; 3rd ed., 1990; 4th ed., 1994; 5th ed., 1998; 6th ed., 2001; 7th ed., 2005; 8th ed., 2008); Japanese translation, 1996.
Liberty's Daughters: The Revolutionary Experience of American Women, l750‑1800 (Boston: Little, Brown, l980; Cornell University Press, 1996).
ed. (with Carol Berkin), Women of America: A History (Houghton Mifflin, l979).
The British‑Americans: The Loyalist Exiles in England, l774‑l789 (Little, Brown, 1972; London: Constable and Co., 1974).
Awards
L.A. Times Distinguished Fellowship, Huntington Library, 2008-9.
2008 Stephen H. Weiss Presidential Fellowship
Mellon Post-Doctoral Fellowship, Huntington Library, spring 2001.
Starr Foundation Fellowship, Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford, Fall 2000.
Ambassador Book Award in American Studies, 2003, English-Speaking Union.
Finalist, LA Times book prize in History, 2003.
Finalist, Pulitzer Prize in History, 1997.