Orlando Patterson - Wikipedia

Orlando Patterson - Wikipedia





Orlando Patterson
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Orlando Patterson

Orlando Patterson speaks at the New America Foundation's "Inequality and the Great Recession" event
Born 5 June 1940 (age 80)

Westmoreland, Jamaica
Home town May Pen, Jamaica
Title John Cowles Chair in Sociology at Harvard University
Awards

National Book Award
Musgrave Medal
Anisfield-Wolf Book Award

Academic background
Education

University of the West Indies
London School of Economics
Doctoral advisor David Glass
Academic work
Discipline Sociologist
Institutions Harvard University
Main interests

Race in the US
Economic development
Notable works Freedom in the Making of Western Culture (1991)


Orlando Patterson (born 5 June 1940) is a Jamaican-born American historical and cultural sociologist known for his work regarding issues of race in the United States, as well as the sociology of development. He is a professor at Harvard University. His book Freedom, Volume One, or Freedom in the Making of Western Culture (1991), won the U.S. National Book Award for Nonfiction.[1]


Contents
1Early life and education
2Career
3Professional associations
4Awards
5Selected bibliography
5.1Academic
5.2Fiction
6References
7External links
Early life and education[edit]

Patterson was born in Westmoreland, Jamaica, and grew up in Clarendon Parish in the small town of May Pen. He attended primary school there, then moved to Kingston to attend Kingston College. He went on to earn a BSc in Economics from the University of the West Indies, Mona, in 1962, and his Ph.D. in Sociology at the London School of Economics in 1965.[2] His dissertation adviser was David Glass.[3] He also wrote for the recently founded New Left Review, his first work being "The Essays of James Baldwin" in 1964.[4] While in London he was associated with the Caribbean Artists Movement, whose second meeting, in January 1967, was held at the Patterson's North London flat.[5]
Career[edit]

Earlier in his career, Patterson was concerned with the economic and political development of his home country, Jamaica. He served as special advisor to Michael Manley, Prime Minister of Jamaica, from 1972 to 1979.

Patterson is known for his work on the relationship between slavery and social death, which he has worked on extensively and written several books about.

Patterson has appeared on PBS and has been a guest columnist in The New York Times. A 2015 article in the latter, "The Real Problem With America’s Inner Cities," used the lens of developmental sociology to analyze recent protests and looting in West Baltimore.[6]

Patterson currently holds the John Cowles chair in Sociology at Harvard University.

In October 2015 he received the Gold Musgrave Medal in recognition of his contribution to literature.[7]
Professional associations[edit]
Fellow, American Academy of Arts and Sciences
Ernest W. Burgess Fellow, American Academy of Political and Social Science
Member, American Sociological Association
Board of Directors, New York Civil Rights Coalition
Awards[edit]
Walter Channing Cabot Faculty Prize, Harvard, 1997
National Book Award, Non-Fiction, 1991[1]
Distinguished Contribution to Scholarship (formerly Sorokin Prize): American Sociological Association, 1983
Ralph Bunche Award from Howard University for the Best Scholarly Work on Pluralism (co-winner): American
Political Science Association, 1983
Walter Channing Cabot Faculty Prize, Harvard, 1983/1997
Best Novel in English (The Children of Sisyphus): Dakar Festival of Negro Arts, 1965
Gold Musgrave Medal, 2015
Anisfield-Wolf Book Award, Lifetime Achievement, 2016
Selected bibliography[edit]
Academic[edit]
The Sociology of Slavery. 1967.
An Analysis of the Origins, Development and Structure of Negro Slave Society in Jamaica. 1968.
Ethnic Chauvinism: The Reactionary Impulse. 1977.
Slavery and Social Death. 1982.
Freedom in the Making of Western Culture. 1991. Later renamed Freedom, Vol. 1: Freedom in the Making of Western Culture — winner of National Book Award[1]
The Ordeal of Integration. 1997
Rituals of Blood: Consequences of Slavery in Two American Centuries. 1999.
Freedom: Freedom in the Modern World. 2006.
The Cultural Matrix: Understanding Black Youth (with Ethan Fosse). 2015.
The Confounding Island: Jamaica and the Postcolonial Predicament. 2019.
Fiction[edit]
The Children of Sisyphus (novel). 1965.
An Absence of Ruins (novel). 1967.
Die the Long Day (novel). 1972.
References[edit]

^ Jump up to:a b c "National Book Awards – 1991". National Book Foundation. Retrieved 24 March 2012.
^ Author information at Peepal Tree Press.
^ https://asaculturesection.org/2018/11/30/four-questions-for-orlando-patterson/
^ "H. Orlando Patterson, The Essays of James Baldwin, NLR I/26, July–August 1964". New Left Review. Retrieved 2020-06-04.
^ Anne Walmsley, The Caribbean Artists Movement, 1966-1972: A Literary and Cultural History, New Beacon Books, 1992, p. 51. ISBN 978-1873201060.
^ Patterson, Orlando (9 May 2015). "The Real Problem in America's Inner Cities". The New York Times.
^ "Gold for Sly and Robbie", Jamaica Gleaner, 30 October 2015. Retrieved 1 November 2015.
External links[edit]
Patterson Biography at Harvard
Patterson's Curriculum Vitae
Video of debate/discussion with Patterson on Bloggingheads.tv
Appearances on C-SPAN
interview with Patterson on Freedom in the Making of Western Culture, Booknotes, 12 April 1992.