Thomas Watkins

Born in Loma Linda, California, in 1936, T. H. Watkins built a career that combined journalism, editing, and narrative history. He worked for publications including American Heritage, The American West, and Wilderness, and became known for writing with a strong sense of place, especially about the American West.

As an author, he explored both regional history and national turning points. His 1991 biography Righteous Pilgrim: The Life and Times of Harold L. Ickes, 1874–1952 won the Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Biography, and he later wrote widely read books on the Great Depression, including The Great Depression: America in the 1930s and The Hungry Years.

Late in his career, he also served as a Wallace Stegner Distinguished Professor of Western American Studies at Montana State University. He died in 2000, leaving behind a body of work remembered for making American history readable, human, and deeply connected to landscape.