author
Allan Nevins
1890–1971
A Pulitzer Prize-winning historian and journalist, he helped shape how modern readers understand the American Civil War and the people who built the United States. He also played a pioneering role in oral history, helping preserve firsthand memories for future generations.
1 Audiobook
The Evening Post: A Century of Journalism
by Allan Nevins
About the author
Born in Camp Point, Illinois, in 1890, Allan Nevins began his career in journalism before becoming one of the best-known American historians of the twentieth century. He taught at Columbia University for many years and wrote with a clear, accessible style that brought large stretches of U.S. history to a broad audience.
He is especially remembered for his sweeping multi-volume history of the Civil War era, Ordeal of the Union, and for biographies of major public figures including Grover Cleveland, Henry Ford, Hamilton Fish, and John D. Rockefeller. His work earned wide recognition, including Pulitzer Prizes, and helped make narrative history popular with general readers.
Nevins also founded Columbia University's oral history program in 1948, an important step in preserving interviews with people who had witnessed major events firsthand. He died in 1971, leaving behind a body of work that still stands out for its ambition, readability, and deep interest in American public life.