James Grossman

James Grossman is the Executive Director of the American Historical Association. Grossman was previously Vice President for Research and Education at the Newberry Library and taught at the University of Chicago.  The author of Land of Hope: Chicago, Black Southerners, and the Great Migration (1989) and A Chance to Make Good: African-Americans, 1900-1929 (1997), Grossman was project director and coeditor of The Encyclopedia of Chicago (2005; online, 2006) and coeditor of the series "Historical Studies of Urban America" (50 vols, 1992-2015). His articles and short essays have focused on African American history, American urban history, ethnicity, higher education, and the place of history in public culture. Land of Hope received awards from the Gustavus Myers Center for Human Rights and the Illinois State Historical Society.  A Chance to Make Good won awards from the New York Public Library and the National Council for the Social Studies. Grossman was chosen in 2005 as one of seven "Chicagoans of the Year" by Chicago Magazine. Grossman’s consulting experience includes the BBC, Smithsonian, and various theater companies, film makers, museums, and libraries. He serves on the boards of the Association of American Colleges & Universities and National Humanities Alliance.

AFFILIATION: American Historical Association