Frederic L. (Frederic Logan) Paxson

Frederic Logan Paxson was an American historian born in 1877 and died in 1948. He is best known for writing about the history of the United States, especially the American frontier and the West.

His best-known book, History of the American Frontier, 1763–1893, won the Pulitzer Prize for History. He also taught history at the University of Wisconsin, where he built a reputation as a careful scholar with a broad view of American development.

Paxson’s writing brought together politics, migration, settlement, and everyday life, making large historical movements easier to follow. For listeners interested in how the United States expanded and changed, his work still offers a clear window into an influential earlier generation of historical writing.