Douglas Ambrose
Sidney Wertimer Professorship for Excellence in Advising and Mentoring and Professor of History
Douglas Ambrose’s teaching and research interests include early America, the Old South and American religious history. His publications include Henry Hughes and Proslavery Thought in the Old South (LSU 1996) and The Many Faces of Alexander Hamilton: The Life and Legacy of America’s Most Elusive Founding Father (NYU 2006), a volume he co-edited with Hamilton colleague Robert W. T. Martin. He has also written numerous articles, book reviews and encyclopedia entries about Southern slavery and Southern intellectual life. Ambrose is a recipient of the Class of 1963 Excellence in Teaching Award. He holds a doctorate in history from the State University of New York at Binghamton.
Recent Courses Taught
Early Modern Western Europe, 1450-1800
An Introduction to the History of the United States, 1492-1861
American Colonial History
The American Civil War
The American Founding: Ideals and Reality
Topics in American Religious History
The Old South
Christianity in America, 1600-1890
Research Interests
The Old South, Antebellum southern intellectual history, Christianity in America, colonial America and revolutionary and early national America
Distinctions
- Student Assembly’s Sidney Wertimer Award for Excellence in Teaching, Hamilton College
- Fulbright Scholar grant to teach American studies in Croatia
- Class of 1963 Excellence in Teaching Award, Hamilton College
- Nominee, The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, U.S. Professors of the Year Program, Hamilton College
Selected Publications
- The Many Faces of Alexander Hamilton: The Life and Legacy of America’s Most Elusive Founding Father co-edited with Robert Martin (New York: New York University Press, 2006; paperback, 2007).
- Henry Hughes and Proslavery Thought in the Old South (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1996).
- “Religion, Nationalism, and American Identity: Reflections on Mark Noll’s America’s God,” in [sic]: A Journal of Literature, Culture, and Literary Translation Vol. 4, # 2 (June 2014), accessible at: http://www.sic-journal.org/ArticleView.aspx?aid=256
- “Modeling the Dedicated Life: Elizabeth Fox-Genovese as Teacher, Mentor, and Friend,” in History & Women, Culture & Faith: Selected Writings of Elizabeth Fox-Genovese, Volume 5: Unbought Grace: An Elizabeth Fox-Genovese Reader, Rebecca Fox and Robert L. Paquette, eds., (Columbia, SC: University of South Carolina Press, 2012).
- “Slavery and Religion,” in Robert L. Paquette and Mark Smith, eds., The Oxford Handbook of Slavery in the Americas (London and New York: Oxford University Press, 2010).
- “Masters,” co-authored with Eugene D. Genovese, in Robert L. Paquette and Mark Smith, eds., The Oxford Handbook of Slavery in the Americas (London and New York: Oxford University Press, 2 2010).
- “Seeking Truth: Elizabeth Fox-Genovese’s Intellectual Pilgrimage,” in The Christendom Review, Vol.1, No. 2 (2008, appeared May 2009)
- “Introduction: The Life and Many Faces of Alexander Hamilton,” in Douglas Ambrose and Robert Martin, eds., The Many Faces of Alexander Hamilton: The Life and Legacy of America’s Most Elusive Founder (New York: New York University Press, 2006).
- “Southern Intellectual Life, 1838-1877,” in Encyclopedia of American Cultural and Intellectual History (New York, 2001).
- “Sowing Sentiment: Shaping the Southern Presbyterian Household, 1750-1800,” Georgetown Law Journal Volume 90, No. 1, November 2001, 143-160.
- “Statism in the Old South: A Reconsideration,” in Robert L. Paquette and Louis Ferleger, eds., Slavery, Secession, and Southern History (Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 2000).
- “Defenses of Slavery,” “Christianity: An Overview,” “Protestantism,” and “Bible: Jewish and Christian Interpretations,” all in The Macmillan Encyclopedia of Slavery (New York, 1998).
- “Of Stations and Relations: Proslavery Christianity in Early National Virginia,” in John R. McKivigan and Mitchell Snay, eds., Religion and the Antebellum Debate Over Slavery (Athens: University of Georgia Press, 1998)
College Service
Chair, Department of History, 2009-12
Student Fellowships Committee
Faculty advisor to The Christopher Dawson Society for the Study of Faith and Reason
Appointed to the Faculty
1990Educational Background
Ph.D., State University of New York at Binghamton
M.A., University of Rochester
B.A., Rutgers University
