Talk:Marc Egnal

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Proposed update (COI disclosure)

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Hello, and thank you for taking a look. I am assisting historian Marc Egnal with factual updates to this article. I want to be transparent that I have a conflict of interest, so I am not editing the article directly. Instead, I am providing a full replacement draft for review and implementation by uninvolved editors.

Please replace the current article text with the following proposed version, which incorporates updated sources, neutral phrasing, and verified citations.

A full copy of the proposed text is available here: User:HistEditorChris/sandbox

Alternatively, the complete replacement text is pasted below:

'''Marc Egnal''' Marc Egnal (born December 11, 1943) is an American historian whose work addresses topics including the American Revolution, the Civil War, economic history, novels and art, and the Canadian economy. '''Life''' Egnal grew up in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and attended Central High School. After undergraduate and graduate studies, he moved to Toronto, Canada, in 1970 to take a position at York University. He married Judith Humphrey, founder of an executive communications firm.<ref>{{cite news |title=Cheng-Fang Yu, Benjamin Egnal |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2019/06/09/fashion/weddings/cheng-fang-yu-benjamin-egnal.html |work=The New York Times |date=June 9, 2019}}</ref> '''Career''' Egnal attended Swarthmore College, receiving a B.A. in 1965. He then went to the University of Wisconsin on a Woodrow Wilson Fellowship to study the Revolutionary era with Merrill Jensen. As part of this program, he spent a year (1968–1969) at the University of London on a Fulbright Fellowship. He received his M.A. from Wisconsin in 1967 and his Ph.D. in 1974.<ref>{{cite web |title=Marc Egnal |url=https://profiles.laps.yorku.ca/profiles/megnal/ |website=York University |access-date=2025-10-03}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Marc Egnal Papers |url=https://search.library.wisc.edu/catalog/999523882002121 |publisher=University of Wisconsin |access-date=2025-10-03}}</ref> He began teaching at York University in 1970 and retired in 2015. He is the author of several books. His first was ''A Mighty Empire: The Origins of the American Revolution'' (Cornell University Press, 1988).<ref>{{cite web |title=A Mighty Empire: The Origins of the American Revolution |url=https://www.cornellpress.cornell.edu/book-listing/?q=Marc+Egnal |publisher=Cornell University Press |access-date=2025-10-03}}</ref> This was followed by ''Divergent Paths: How Culture and Institutions Have Shaped North American Growth'' (Oxford University Press, 1996)<ref>{{cite web |title=Divergent Paths: How Culture and Institutions Have Shaped North American Growth |url=https://global.oup.com/academic/product/divergent-paths-9780195098662 |publisher=Oxford University Press |access-date=2025-10-03}}</ref> and ''New World Economies: The Growth of the Thirteen Colonies and Early Canada'' (Oxford University Press, 1998).<ref>{{cite web |title=New World Economies: The Growth of the Thirteen Colonies and Early Canada |url=https://global.oup.com/academic/product/new-world-economies-9780195114829 |publisher=Oxford University Press |access-date=2025-10-03}}</ref> His next major work was ''The Clash of Extremes: The Economic Origins of the Civil War'' (Hill and Wang, 2009). The book argues that “economic change, more than any other factor, explains the origins of the Civil War.”<ref>{{cite web |title=Clash of Extremes: The Economic Origins of the Civil War |url=https://us.macmillan.com/books/9780809095360/clashofextremes |publisher=Hill and Wang |access-date=2025-10-03}}</ref> Egnal has also written related essays for ''The New York Times''.<ref>{{cite news |last=Egnal |first=Marc |title=Becoming the Party of Freedom |url=https://archive.nytimes.com/opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/07/31/becoming-the-party-of-freedom/ |work=The New York Times |date=July 31, 2011}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |last=Egnal |first=Marc |title=The Greenback is Born |url=https://archive.nytimes.com/opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/02/27/the-greenback-is-born/ |work=The New York Times |date=February 27, 2012}}</ref> In 2024 he published ''A Mirror for History: How Novels and Art Reflect the Evolution of Middle-Class America'' (University of Tennessee Press), which examines American society from 1750 to 2020. Central to this work is the contention that “the arc of middle-class culture reflects the evolution of the American economy from the near-subsistence agriculture of the 1750s to the extraordinarily unequal society of the twenty-first century.” It combines analysis of novels, art, and social data to explore shifts in values, social norms, and economic structures over time. <ref>{{cite web |title=A Mirror for History |url=https://utpress.org/title/a-mirror-for-history/ |publisher=University of Tennessee Press |access-date=2025-10-03}}</ref> In 2025 Egnal published ''Challenging the Myths of US History: Seven Short Essays on the Past & Present'' (University of California Press), covering topics including the American Revolution, Civil War, Vietnam, violence, the women’s movement, and Donald Trump. Tying together the essays is the argument that “at the heart of the American story are the demands of affluent citizens for economic growth and territorial expansion.”<ref>{{cite web |title=Challenging the Myths of US History |url=https://www.ucpress.edu/book/9780520399721/challenging-the-myths-of-us-history |publisher=University of California Press |access-date=2025-10-03}}</ref> In retirement, Egnal has also published fiction. His short stories include ''Murder on the Playground'' (2025),<ref>{{cite web |title=Murder on the Playground |url=https://www.freedomfiction.com/2025/02/murder-playground-by-marc-egnal/ |website=Freedom Fiction Journal |date=February 19, 2025 |access-date=2025-10-03}}</ref> ''Death in the Oranges'' (2024),<ref>{{cite web |title=Death in the Oranges |url=https://www.freedomfiction.com/2024/05/death-in-the-oranges/ |website=Freedom Fiction Journal |date=May 13, 2024 |access-date=2025-10-03}}</ref> and ''Golden Gate'' (2024).<ref>{{cite web |title=Golden Gate |url=https://www.freedomfiction.com/2024/03/golden-gate-by-marc-egnal/ |website=Freedom Fiction Journal |date=March 31, 2024 |access-date=2025-10-03}}</ref> '''Works''' ''A Mighty Empire: The Origins of the American Revolution.'' Ithaca, New York: Cornell University Press, 1988. Reissued with a new preface, 2010. Cornell University Press ''Divergent Paths: How Culture and Institutions Have Shaped North American Growth.'' New York: Oxford University Press, 1996. Oxford University Press ''New World Economies: The Growth of the Thirteen Colonies and Early Canada.'' New York: Oxford University Press, 1998. Oxford University Press ''Clash of Extremes: The Economic Origins of the Civil War.'' New York: Hill and Wang, 2009. Macmillan/Hill and Wang ''A Mirror for History: How Novels and Art Reflect the Evolution of Middle-Class America.'' Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press, 2024. University of Tennessee Press ''Challenging the Myths of US History: Seven Short Essays on the Past & Present.'' Oakland: University of California Press, 2025. University of California Press

I’m happy to answer any questions or provide additional sources if needed.

HistEditorChris (talk) 17:29, 6 October 2025 (UTC)[reply]