James Drake

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James Drake

Chair of Professor of History

SUP_TERM

Bio

Born and raised in Denver, Jim Drake has been haunted by the fear that his academic career peaked in kindergarten when, had it been formally calculated, he may have finished near the top of Mrs. Okasaki's class. Although dogged by the realization that he could never live up to that performance, he persevered. After high school, he continued his education in California. Generally, this was a good idea, as he managed to graduate from U.C. Berkeley and earn his Ph.D. at UCLA. But fires, mudslides, earthquakes, celebrity trials, civil unrest, traffic, and a wife full of wisdom all prompted him to return to Denver in 1996, the year he began teaching at Metropolitan State College of Denver. He has written two books: King Philip's War: Civil War in New England, 1675-1676 (Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 1999); and The Nation's Nature: How Continental Presumptions Gave Rise to the United States of America (Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 2011), which won the Walker Cowen Memorial Prize and the Phi Alpha Theta Best Subsequent Book Award. Now he is progressing so slowly on a book about the Rocky Mountains that, even should he live to be one hundred and two, he will be lucky to have it published posthumously. But, in the meantime, he did manage to eke out a prize-winning article in the Pacific Historical Review, which might make you think twice next time you find yourself on the Continental Divide.

Degree

PhD in History

UCLA

MA in History

UCLA

BA in History and Economics

UC Berkeley

Published Works

  • Drake, J. (2017). Scott Stine, A Way across the Mountain: Joseph Walker's 1833 Trans-Sierran Passage and the Myth of Yosemite's Discovery. Pacific Historical Review,
  • Drake, J. (2016). Eberhard L. Faber, Building the Land of Dreams: New Orleans and the Transformation of Early America. William and Mary Quarterly,
  • Drake, J. (2016). Stephen G. Baker, Juan Rivera's Colorado, 1765: The First Spaniards among the Ute and Paiute Indians on the Trails to Teguayo. Colorado Book Review, http://cdm16079.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/singleitem/collection/p16079coll52/id/458/rec/226
  • Drake, J. (2015). John R. Van Atta, Securing the West: Politics, Public Lands, and the Fate of the Old Republic. The Journal of Southern History,
  • Drake, J. (2015). "A Divide to Heal the Union: The Creation of the Continental Divide". Pacific Historical Review, 84(4), 409-447. .
  • Drake, J. (2012). Jeremy Black, Fighting for America: The Struggle for Mastery in British North America, 1519-1871. American Historical Review,
  • Drake, J. (2012). Sam W. Haynes, Unfinished Revolution: The Early American Republic in a British World. Diplomatic History,
  • Drake, J. (2012). Roundtable response to reviews of my book The Nation’s Nature for H-Diplo. , www.h-net.org/~diplo/roundtables/PDF/Roundtable-XIV-13.pdf
  • Drake, J. (2011). The Nation’s Nature: How Continental Presumptions Gave Rise to the United States of America. (). University of Virginia Press.
  • Drake, J. (2011). James D. Rice, Nature and History in the Potomac Country: From Hunter-Gatherers to the Age of Jefferson. American Indian Culture and Research Journal,
  • Drake, J. (2009). Kyle F. Zelner, A Rabble in Arms: Massachusetts Towns and Militiamen during King Philip's War. New England Quarterly,
  • Drake, J. (2008). "Expedition against Cartagena". ABC Clio,
  • Drake, J. (2008). "King Philip’s War: Civil War in New England, 1675-1676". (pp 40-41). Houghton Mifflin.
  • Drake, J. (2008). "New York Slave Revolt, 1712". ABC Clio,
  • Drake, J. (2008). "New York Slave Revolt, 1741". ABC Clio,
  • Drake, J. (2008). "Piracy". ABC Clio,
  • Drake, J. (2008). "The Glorious Revolution in America". ABC Clio,
  • Drake, J. (2007). Jenny Hale Pulsipher, Subjects Unto the Same King: Indians, English, and the Contest for Authority in Colonial New England. English Historical Review,
  • Drake, J. (2006). David Holifield, Theology in America: Christian Thought from the Age of the Puritans to the Civil War. Catholic Historical Review,
  • Drake, J. (2006). James Oberly, A Nation of Statesmen: The Political Culture of the Stockbridge-Munsee Mohicans, 1815-1972. American Indian Culture and Research Journal,
  • Drake, J. (2004). "Appropriating a Continent: Geographical Categories, Scientific Metaphors, and the Construction of Nationalism in British North America and Mexico". Journal of World History, 15(3), 323-57. .
  • Drake, J. (2004). "The Legacy of King Philip’s War". MacMillan,
  • Drake, J. (2004). Guy Chet, Conquering the American Wilderness: The Triumph of European Warfare in the Colonial Northeast. Journal of American History,
  • Drake, J. (2004). Michael Oberg, Uncas: First of the Mohegans. William and Mary Quarterly,
  • Drake, J. (2004). Victoria Freeman, Distant Relations: How My Ancestors Colonized North America. American Historical Review,
  • Drake, J. (2003). "Albany Congress". Facts on File,
  • Drake, J. (2003). "King Philip’s War". Facts on File,
  • Drake, J. (2003). "Metacom". Facts on File,
  • Drake, J. (2003). "Miantonomo". Facts on File,
  • Drake, J. (2003). "Narragansett". Facts on File,
  • Drake, J. (2003). "Pequot War". Facts on File,
  • Drake, J. (2003). "Pequot". Facts on File,
  • Drake, J. (2003). Gregory Dowd, War Under Heaven: Pontiac, the Indian Nations, and the British Empire. American Indian Culture and Research Journal,
  • Drake, J. (2003). Helen Roundtree and Randolph Turner, Before and After Jamestown: Virginia’s Powhatans and Their Predecessors. American Indian Culture and Research Journal,
  • Drake, J. (2001). Karen Ordahl Kupperman, Indians and English: Facing Off in Early America. Journal of American History,
  • Drake, J. (1999). "Joseph Brant". Oxford University Press,
  • Drake, J. (1999). "Lewis and Clark Expedition". Oxford University Press,
  • Drake, J. (1999). "Native American Wars". Oxford University Press,
  • Drake, J. (1999). King Philip’s War: Civil War in New England, 1675-1676. (). University of Massachusetts Press.
  • Drake, J. (1999). Colin G. Calloway, New Worlds for All: Indians, Europeans, and the Remaking of Early America. Journal of American Ethnic History,
  • Drake, J. (1999). Robert A. Williams, Jr., Linking Arms Together: American Indian Treaty Visions of Law and Peace, 1600-1800. American Indian Culture and Research Journal,
  • Drake, J. (1998). Jill Lepore, The Name of War: King Philip's War and the Origins of American Identity. Journal of the Early Republic,
  • Drake, J. (1997). "‘The World Turned Upside Down’: View From the West". ,
  • Drake, J. (1997). William C. Foster, Spanish Expeditions into Texas, 1689-1768. Journal of American History,
  • Drake, J. (1997). "Restraining Atrocity: The Conduct of King Philip's War". The New England Quarterly, 70(1), 33-56. .
  • Drake, J., Arévalo, J., Sesso, G., Vigilante, D. (1996). Duel of Eagles: Conflicts in the Southwest, 1836-1848, A Unit of Study for Grades 8-12. National Center for History in the Schools,
  • Drake, J., Arévalo, J., Sesso, G., Vigilante, D. (1996). The Great Convergence: The Pueblos and Spaniards Meet, A Unit of Study for Grades 8-12. National Center for History in the Schools,
  • Drake, J. (1995). "Symbol of a Failed Strategy: The Sassamon Trial, Political Culture, and the Outbreak of King Philip's War". American Indian Culture and Research Journal, 19(2), 111-41. .
  • Drake, J. (1995). Emerson W. Baker, et al., eds., American Beginnings: Exploration, Culture, and Cartography in the Land of Norumbega. American Indian Culture and Research Journal,
  • Drake, J., Palumbo, J. (1992). Three Worlds Meet: The Columbian Encounter and Its Legacy, A Unit of Study for Grades 5-9. National Center for History in the Schools,

Office Hours

On leave.