David Head, Ph.D.

• Lecturer
• david.head@ucf.edu
• 407-823-2225
• Campus Location: CNH542
• View CV
• View personal website

Education

• Ph.D. from University at Buffalo, The State University of New York (2010)

Research Interests

American Revolution, Early American Republic, Atlantic World, Maritime History, Pirates and Privateers

Recent Research Activities

David Head's research focuses on two distinct areas: pirates and George Washington.

His first book, Privateers of the Americas: Spanish American Privateering from the United States in the Early Republic, told the story of seafarers in the United States who joined the Spanish American Wars of Independence by sailing as privateers, attacking Spanish ships, and, often, returning to the United States with their booty. 

Head is the editor two books: an encyclopedia of the Atlantic world and a collection of essays on pirates.

Currently he is writing a new book on George Washington, the Newburgh Conspiracy, and the end of the American Revolution.

Selected Publications

Books

• Privateers of the Americas: Spanish American Privateering from the United States in the Early Republic. University of Georgia Press, 2015.

Edited Collections

• Editor, The Golden Age of Piracy: The Rise, Fall, and Enduring Popularity of Pirates, University of Georgia Press, 2018.
• Editor, Encyclopedia of the Atlantic World, 1400-1900: Europe, Africa, and the Americas in An Age of Exploration, Trade, and Empires. ABC-CLIO, 2017. 

Articles/Essays

• “Slave Smuggling by Foreign Privateers: Geopolitical Influences on the Illegal Slave Trade,” Journal of the Early Republic, 33 (Fall 2013), 433-462.
• "New Nations, New Connections: Spanish American Privateering from the United States and the Development of Atlantic Relations," Early American Studies, 11 (Winter 2013), 161-175.
• “Independence on the Quarterdeck: Three Baltimore Seafarers, Spanish America, and the Lives of Captains in the Early American Republic,” The Northern Mariner/le marin du nord, 23 (January 2013), 1-20.
• "Howard Pyle's Pirates: Late Victorian Children's Literature and the Best Reading for Over Refined Boys," Topic: The Washington & Jefferson College Review, 58 (2012), 93-112.
• "Baltimore Seafarers, Privateering, and the South American Revolutions, 1816-1820," Maryland Historical Magazine, 105:4 (Fall 2008), 269-293.

Awards

John Gardner Maritime Research Award for most significant contribution to maritime research for book Privateers of the Americas: Spanish American Privateering from the United States in the Early Republic (Georgia, 2015). Presented by the Fellows of the G.W. Blunt White Library, Mystic Seaport Museum, 2016.

Ralph D. Gray Article Prize for most significant Journal of the Early Republic article in 2013 for "Slave Smuggling by Foreign Privateers: Geopolitical Influences on the Illegal Slave Trade." Presented by the Society for Historians of the Early American Republic, 2014.

Marion Brewington Prize for Best Essay in Chesapeake Maritime History, Baltimore Seafarers, Privateering, and the South American Revolutions, 1816-1820." Presented by the Maryland Historical Society, 2008.

Hardin Craig Award for Excellence at the Munson Institute of American Maritime History. Presented by Mystic Seaport Museum, 2001.

Courses

• Spring 2019
• Fall 2018
• Summer 2018