Donald Akenson

rdf:langString Donald Akenson

rdf:langString Donald Harman Akenson (born May 22, 1941, Minneapolis, Minnesota) is an American historian and author. Notably prolific, he has written at least 23 book-length, scholarly monographs, 3 jointly-authored scholarly books, 6 works of fiction and historical fiction, and 55 scholarly articles. He is a fellow of both the Royal Society of Canada and the Royal Historical Society (UK). He is also a Molson Prize Laureate, awarded for a lifetime contribution to Canadian culture (other winners include Margaret Atwood, Marshall McLuhan, and Glenn Gould). He was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1984, and in 1992 he won the prestigious Grawemeyer Award, then the richest non-fiction book prize in the world. Akenson received his B.A. from Yale University and his doctorate from Harvard University. He is Distinguished University Professor and Douglas Professor of History at Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario, Canada, and was simultaneously Beamish Research Professor at the Institute of Irish Studies, University of Liverpool (2006–10), and senior editor of the McGill-Queen's University Press (1982-2012).