David Head, Ph.D.

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

Education

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

Research Interests

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

Recent Research Activities

A scholar of early America, David Head currently researches George Washington, the Founding Fathers, and the American Revolution.

His most recent book, A Crisis of Peace: George Washington, the Newburgh Conspiracy, and the Fate of the American Revolution (Pegasus Books, 2019), tells the dramatic story of how Washington defused civil–military tensions to bring the war to a peaceful end.

He is currently preparing, as co-editor, a collection of essays about scoundrels in the early American republic.

Head has also published works on pirates and privateers, including Privateers of the Americas: Spanish American Privateering from the United States in the Early Republic (Georgia, 2015) and, as editor, The Golden Age of Piracy: The Rise, Fall, and Enduring Popularity of Pirates (Georgia, 2018). In addition, he has edited an encyclopedia of Atlantic world history (ABC-CLIO, 2017).

His work has been supported by the National Endowment for the Humanities, George Washington's Mount Vernon, the Library Company of Philadelphia, the Gilder Lehrman Institute, and the Maryland Historical Society.

Selected Publications

Books

• A Crisis of Peace: George Washington, the Newburgh Conspiracy, and the Fate of the American Revolution (Pegasus Books, 2019).
• 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

• “Show some respect for dads and 'Dad History.' These books are a Father's Day gift classic, USA Today, June 16, 2021.
• “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

Research Incentive Award, University of Central Florida, 2021.

Honorable mention, 2020 Best Book Award, Journal of the American Revolution, for A Crisis of Peace: George Washington, the Newburgh Conspiracy, and the Fate of the American Revolution.

Finalist, 2020 George Washington Book Prize for outstanding scholarship on the Founding Era written for a broad public audience. Presented by George Washington’s Mount Vernon, the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History, and Washington College. For A Crisis of Peace.

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 2023
• Fall 2022
• Summer 2022
• Spring 2022
• Fall 2021
• Summer 2021