Donald A. Yerxa

Donald A. Yerxa
Residence Hingham, Massachusetts
Nationality U.S.
Alma mater Eastern Nazarene College, University of Maine
Employer Boston University
Known for Editor, Historian
Title Director, Senior Editor
Website http://www.enc.edu/history/faculty.html

Donald A. Yerxa is an author, editor and historian.

Biography

Yerxa received his bachelor's degree in history from the Eastern Nazarene College in 1972. He received a master's degree (1974) and Ph.D. (1982) from the University of Maine on a university fellowship. A noted historian,[1] Yerxa is a director of The Historical Society (THS)[2] at Boston University (BU) and a senior editor of Historically Speaking, published by the Johns Hopkins University Press[3] for BU.

He is the former chair of the James R. Cameron Center for History, Law, & Government at his alma mater, the Eastern Nazarene College (ENC), where he taught from 1977 to 2009,[4] and launched the history department's distinguished lecture series in the 1990s.[5] He was a member of the executive board for the Conference on Faith and History[6] from 2002 to 2006, currently serves on the editorial board of the online journal New Global Studies,[7] and is editing a multi-volume series, Historians in Conversation, for the University of South Carolina Press.

Yerxa guest edits for publications, such as the European Review, for which he guest edited a forum on the Scientific Revolution, and is a contributing editor for Christianity Today's Books and Culture magazine.[8] He is a frequent contributor to the Research News & Opportunities in Science and Theology publication for the John Templeton Foundation (JTF) and has been a multiple grant recipient.[9] His most recent grant organized a conference on "British Abolitionism, Moral Progress, and Big Questions in History."[10]

Yerxa is currently the editor of Fides et Historia.

Published works

Yerxa has written encyclopedia entries for four encyclopedias on United States history and the history of science,[11] and is the author of three books, two on naval history: Admirals and Empire,[12] and The Burning of Falmouth,[13] and Species of Origins: America’s Search for a Creation Story[14] with coauthor Karl Giberson. Admirals was described as "solidly researched, clearly and economically written, and intelligently conceived... a useful synthesis filling a gap in the existing literature,"[15] Species of Origins was widely reviewed as a uniquely even-handed and concise contribution to the scholarship on the Creation–evolution controversy in the United States.

Galileo scholar William Shea lauded the account as the "best-written and most perceptive of the current accounts available,"[16] while author Edward Larson described it as the "next best thing for those of us not enrolled in their courses."[17] Professor of science Michael Ruse described it as “a simply invaluable primer on the subject that should be made compulsory reading for all who have ever thought on science-and-religion ... I can think of no better place to start into the debate about origins — creationism or evolution — than with this book.”[18] It has been the subject of and catalyst for various discussions, conferences, and other books.[19]

Notes and references

  1. ↑ Gordon College History Department Newsletter PDF for Winter 2007: "History in Oklahoma City" by Emily Brunnell ('07), p. 2
  2. ↑ The Historical Society
  3. ↑ Historically Speaking
  4. ↑ Plante, Lea (May 2009). "Diplomatic patriarch departs ENC after years of teaching, writing, guiding: Don Yerxa will retire as head of the history department at the end of the academic year after giving over 30 years of service" (PDF). The Christian Scholar. Retrieved 2009-05-13.
  5. ↑ ENC History Department Lectures
  6. ↑ Conference on Faith and History, space provided by Huntington University
  7. ↑ Editorial Board for the NGS of BEPRESS
  8. ↑ Books & Culture: a Christian Review
  9. ↑ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2007-08-24. Retrieved 2007-08-21. & "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2007-08-10. Retrieved 2007-08-21.
  10. ↑ In London on April 26–28, 2007. Participants included David Brion Davis, Felipe Fernández-Armesto, Jeremy Black, Eamon Duffy, Peter Harrison, David Hempton, Wilfred McClay, George Marsden, and Lamin Sanneh. The conference explored whether the example of British abolitionism offers any clues to historians on moral progress and human betterment.
  11. ↑ Donald A. Yerxa CV
  12. ↑ Donald Yerxa, Admirals and Empire: The U.S. Navy and the Caribbean, 1898-1945, Columbia: University of South Carolina Press, 1991 ISBN 0-87249-750-X
  13. ↑ Donald Yerxa, The Burning of Falmouth, 1775: A Case Study in British Imperial Pacification, October 18, 1775. Portland: Maine Historical Society, 1976
  14. ↑ Karl Giberson and Donald Yerxa, Species of Origins: America's Search for a Creation Story, Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc., 2002 ISBN 0-7425-0764-5
  15. ↑ Journal Storage Archive for the American Historical Review (2 pp.)
  16. ↑ Book blurbs for Species of Origins, from Rowman & Littlefield Archived September 20, 2004, at the Wayback Machine.
  17. ↑ Larson, Edward (November–December 2003). "Don't know much biology.(Science Pages--Species of Origins: America's Search for a Creation Story, by Karl Giberson and Donald Yerxa)(Book Review)". Books & Culture: a Christian Review. 9 (6): 26. Retrieved 2007-08-21.
  18. ↑ National Center for Science Education Archived July 21, 2007, at the Wayback Machine.
  19. ↑ Examples: CONFERENCE EXAMINES EVOLUTION, INTELLIGENT DESIGN, Grove City College, January 05, 2007 Archived September 28, 2007, at the Wayback Machine. and On The Evolution-Creation Struggle by Michael Ruse
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