Professor David Wrobel, Merrick Chair of Western History at the University of Oklahoma, has been selected to receive the prestigious Wrangler Award in recognition of his nonfiction book, Global West, American Frontier: Travel, Empire and Exceptionalism from Manifest Destiny to the Great Depression.
Wrobel will be formally honored during the Western Heritage Awards banquet on April 12 at the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum. First presented in 1961, the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum Western Heritage Awards were established to honor and encourage the legacy of those whose works in literature, music, film and television reflect the significant stories of the American West.
“David Wrobel is an extremely deserving recipient of the prestigious Wrangler Award,” said OU President David L. Boren. “His scholarship has helped give all of us a greater understanding of the American West.”
Wrobel teaches undergraduate and graduate courses at OU on the American West, Modern American Thought and Culture, the Progressive Era, Historical Methods, and the U.S. Survey: 1865-Present.
Wrobel also has authored two other books: Promised Lands: Promotion, Memory and the Creation of the American West; and The End of American Exceptionalism: Frontier Anxiety from the Old West to the New Deal. His current book projects are The West and America, 1900-2000: A Regional History and John Steinbeck’s America, 1930-1968. Wrobel co-edits The Modern American West book series, and he is the author of numerous articles and essays.
He is a participant in the Organization of American Historians Distinguished Lecturer Program. He recently held the position of Senior Research Fellow in Western American History at the Frederick W. Beinecke Library and the Howard R. Lamar Center for the Study of Frontiers and Borders at Yale University. He has been the recipient of numerous research fellowships, including The Huntington Library, California; the Newberry Library; and the American Philosophical Society.
Wrobel has served as president of the American Historical Association’s Pacific Coast Branch and as a member of the Western History Association Council. He also has served as president of Phi Alpha Theta, the National History Honor Society.
Last year, he was the opening speaker for OU’s second annual Teach-In on the Great Depression and World War II, sponsored by the OU Institute for the American Constitutional Heritage. He has participated in and directed numerous teacher institutes sponsored by the National Endowment for the Humanities, U.S. Department of Education, National Council for History Education, American Institute for History Education and the Mellon Foundation.
Wrobel received a Bachelor of Arts in history/philosophy from the University of Kent, Canterbury, England, in 1985. He earned a Master of Arts in 1987 and a Ph.D. in 1991, both from Ohio University.
