Professor Michael McDonnell
History
After completing my BA in History and Philosophy at the University of Ottawa, in Canada, I returned to Britain to do a DPhil at Balliol College, Oxford, where I also taught briefly and served as Junior Dean. I then taught at the University of Wales, Swansea before taking up a new post in Atlantic History at the University of Sydney, in 2004. I am currently working on several major research projects, including an exploration of comparative Indigenous experiences of empire in a Revolutionary Age (with Kate Fullagar, Macquarie University), an examination of the place of the American Revolution in Black American life (with Clare Corbould, Monash University, and W. Fitzhugh Brundage, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill), and a study of Revolutionary War memoirs written by lower-class veterans of the conflict.
- Early and Revolutionary America
- American Revolution and Memory
- Native Americans in North America
- Comparative Indigenous Studies
- Cultural intermediaries and brokers
- Social history of the early Atlantic
Teaching
- HSTY 2662: Atlantic World in the Age of Empire
- HSTY 2663: Natives and Newcomers
- HSTY 2666: American Revolutions
- HSTY 2691: Writing History
- HSTY 4000: Civilising Subjects
- HSTY 3602: History Beyond the Classroom
Supervision
- Early America and the Atlantic World
- Native Americans and Indigenous History
- Memory and History
2016 Masters of empire awarded the Robert M. Utley Award, Western Historical Association and the Michigan State History Award, The Historical Society of Michigan
2008-2011 Appointed to the Organization of American Historians Distinguished Lectureship Program
2008 Winner, NSW Premier’s History Prize for The Politics of War: Race, Class, and Conflict in Revolutionary Virginia
2007 “Class War” selected for inclusion in the Organization of American Historians (OAH) Best American History Essays 2008 collection.
2007 Winner, Lester Cappon Prize for the annual best article published in the William and Mary Quarterly for the year 2006 for “Class War?”
Selected publications
Publications
Books
- McDonnell, M. (2015). Masters of Empire: Great Lakes Indians and the Making of America. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux.
- McDonnell, M. (2007). The Politics of War: Race, Class, and conflict in Revolutionary Virgina. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press.
Edited Books
- Fullagar, K., McDonnell, M. (2018). Facing Empire: Indigenous Experiences in a Revolutionary Age. Baltimore: John Hopkins University Press.
- McDonnell, M. (2017). Rethinking the Age of Revolution. Oxon: Routledge. [More Information]
- McDonnell, M., Corbould, C., Clarke, F., Brundage, W. (2013). Remembering the Revolution: Memory, History, and Nation Making from Independence to the Civil War. Amherst and Boston: University of Massachusetts Press.
Book Chapters
- McDonnell, M. (2025). Re-centring Native American History: Biography Transformed. In Shino Konishi, Malcolm Allbrook, Tom Griffiths (Eds.), Reframing Indigenous Biography, (pp. 215-235). New York: Routledge. [More Information]
- McDonnell, M. (2024). North American Breakdown. In Trevor Burnard, Emma Hart, Marie Houllemare (Eds.), The Oxford Handbook of the Seven Years' War, (pp. 417-434). United Kingdom: Oxford University Press. [More Information]
- McDonnell, M. (2023). The Revolutionary Era. In W. Fitzhugh Brundage (Eds.), A New History of the American South, (pp. 125-159). Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press.
Journals
- Kandasamy, N., McDonnell, M. (2024). Powerful Stories: Indigenous and Refugee Histories of Dispossession and Displacement in Settler Colonies. Journal of Intercultural Studies, , 1-19. [More Information]
- McDonnell, M. (2022). Book Review: Atlantic Wars: From the Fifteenth Century to the Age of Revolution. William and Mary Quarterly, 79(2), 345-349.
- McDonnell, M., Neilson, B. (2019). Reclaiming a Revolutionary Past: War Veterans, Pensions, and the Struggle for Recognition. Journal of the Early Republic, 39(3), 467-501. [More Information]
Reference Works
- McDonnell, M. (2016). The American War for Independence as a Revolutionary War. Oxford Research Encyclopedia, American History. USA: Oxford University Press. [More Information]
- McDonnell, M. (2012). American Revolution. In LJ Griffin & PG Hargis (Eds.), The New Encyclopedia of Southern Culture: Volume 20: Social Class. (pp. 61-66). North Carolina, USA: University of North Carolina Press.
- McDonnell, M. (2006). Mobilization in Virginia. Encyclopedia of the American Revolution. Charles Scribners & Sons Publishing.
Other
- McDonnell, M., Allender, T. (2012), Thinking Inclusively about History at University: Recent Research and Developments in the Sydney History Department (Seminar, St Paul's College, University of Sydney, 1 August 2012).
2025
- McDonnell, M. (2025). Re-centring Native American History: Biography Transformed. In Shino Konishi, Malcolm Allbrook, Tom Griffiths (Eds.), Reframing Indigenous Biography, (pp. 215-235). New York: Routledge. [More Information]
2024
- McDonnell, M. (2024). North American Breakdown. In Trevor Burnard, Emma Hart, Marie Houllemare (Eds.), The Oxford Handbook of the Seven Years' War, (pp. 417-434). United Kingdom: Oxford University Press. [More Information]
- Kandasamy, N., McDonnell, M. (2024). Powerful Stories: Indigenous and Refugee Histories of Dispossession and Displacement in Settler Colonies. Journal of Intercultural Studies, , 1-19. [More Information]
2023
- McDonnell, M. (2023). The Revolutionary Era. In W. Fitzhugh Brundage (Eds.), A New History of the American South, (pp. 125-159). Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press.
2022
- McDonnell, M. (2022). Book Review: Atlantic Wars: From the Fifteenth Century to the Age of Revolution. William and Mary Quarterly, 79(2), 345-349.
- McDonnell, M., Whyte, M. (2022). Revolutionary Lives: Memoir Writing and Meaning Making during the American Revolution. American Literature in Transition, 1770–1828, (pp. 268-287). UK: Cambridge University Press. [More Information]
2020
- Bell, A., Barahona, S., Beg, G., Coulson, S., Eymont, R., Hartman, J., Hubble, T., Leung, N., McDonnell, M., Ni, J., Sakhaee, E., Uptin, J., et al (2020). Students and Academics Working in Partnership to Embed Cultural Competence as a Graduate Quality. In Jack Frawley, Gabrielle Russell, & Juanita Sherwood (Eds.), Cultural Competence and the Higher Education Sector, (pp. 233-254). Singapore: Springer Nature. [More Information]
2019
- McDonnell, M., Neilson, B. (2019). Reclaiming a Revolutionary Past: War Veterans, Pensions, and the Struggle for Recognition. Journal of the Early Republic, 39(3), 467-501. [More Information]
2018
- Fullagar, K., McDonnell, M. (2018). Empire, Indigeneity, and Revolution. In Kate Fullagar, Michael A. McDonnell (Eds.), Facing Empire: Indigenous Experiences in a Revolutionary Age, (pp. 1-24). Baltimore: John Hopkins University Press.
- Fullagar, K., McDonnell, M. (2018). Facing Empire: Indigenous Experiences in a Revolutionary Age. Baltimore: John Hopkins University Press.
- McDonnell, M. (2018). The Indigenous Architecture of Empire: The Anishinaabe Odawa in North America. In Kate Fullagar, Michael A. McDonnell (Eds.), Facing Empire: Indigenous Experiences in a Revolutionary Age, (pp. 48-71). Baltimore: John Hopkins University Press.
2017
- McDonnell, M. (2017). Introduction: Rethinking the Age of Revolution. In M. McDonnell (Eds.), Rethinking the Age of Revolution, (pp. 1-14). Oxon: Routledge. [More Information]
- McDonnell, M. (2017). Rethinking the Age of Revolution. Oxon: Routledge. [More Information]
- McDonnell, M., Waldstreicher, D. (2017). Revolution in the quarterly? A historiographical analysis. William and Mary Quarterly, 74(4), 633-666. [More Information]
2016
- McDonnell, M. (2016). Rethinking the Age of Revolution. Atlantic Studies: literary, cultural and historical perspectives, 13(3), 301-314. [More Information]
- McDonnell, M. (2016). The American War for Independence as a Revolutionary War. Oxford Research Encyclopedia, American History. USA: Oxford University Press. [More Information]
- McDonnell, M. (2016). War Stories: Remembering and Forgetting the American Revolution. In Patrick Spero and Michael Zuckerman (Eds.), The American Revolution Reborn, (pp. 9-28). Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press. [More Information]
2015
- Goodman, D., McDonnell, M. (2015). An Interview with Donna Merwick. Australasian Journal of American Studies (AJAS), 34(1), 60-83.
- McDonnell, M. (2015). Maintaining a Balance of Power: Michilimackinac, the Anishinaabe Odawas, and the Anglo-Indian War of 1763. Early American Studies: An Interdisciplinary Journal, 13(1), 38-79.
- McDonnell, M. (2015). Masters of Empire: Great Lakes Indians and the Making of America. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux.
2014
- McDonnell, M., Fullagar, K. (2014). Facing Empire: indigenous experiences of European empire in comparative perspective, 1760-1820. In Robert Aldrich, Kirsten McKenzie (Eds.), The Routledge History of Western Empires, (pp. 59-71). London: Routledge. [More Information]
- McDonnell, M. (2014). Rethinking the Middle Ground: French Colonialism and Indigenous Identities in the Pays d'en Haut. In Gregory D. Smithers, Brooke N. Newman (Eds.), Native Diasporas: Indigenous Identities and Settler Colonialism in the Americas, (pp. 79-108). Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press. [More Information]
2013
- McDonnell, M., Corbould, C., Clarke, F., Brundage, W. (2013). Remembering the Revolution: Memory, History, and Nation Making from Independence to the Civil War. Amherst and Boston: University of Massachusetts Press.
- McDonnell, M., Corbould, C., Clarke, F., Brundage, W. (2013). The Revolution in American Life from 1776 to the Civil War. In Michael A. McDonnell, Clare Corbould, Frances M. Clarke, W. Fitzhugh Brundage (Eds.), Remembering the Revolution: Memory, History, and Nation Making from Independence to the Civil War, (pp. 1-15). Amherst and Boston: University of Massachusetts Press.
- McDonnell, M. (2013). The Struggle Within: Colonial Politics on the Eve of Independence. In Edward G. Gray, Jane Kamensky (Eds.), The Oxford Handbook of the American Revolution, (pp. 103-120). New York, United States: Oxford University Press. [More Information]
2012
- McDonnell, M. (2012). American Revolution. In LJ Griffin & PG Hargis (Eds.), The New Encyclopedia of Southern Culture: Volume 20: Social Class. (pp. 61-66). North Carolina, USA: University of North Carolina Press.
- McDonnell, M. (2012). Facing Empire: Indigenous Histories in Comparative Perspective. In Kate Fullagar (Eds.), The Atlantic World in the Antipodes: Effects and Transformations since the Eighteenth Century, (pp. 220-236). Newcastle upon Tyne, UK: Cambridge Scholars Publishing.
- McDonnell, M. (2012). History, Myth, and the Making of America. Reviews in American History, 40(2), 215-221.
2011
- McDonnell, M. (2011). "The Spirit of Levelling": James Cleveland, Edward Wright, and the Militiamen's Struggle for Equality in Revolutionary Virginia. In Alfred F. Young, Gary B. Nash, and Ray Raphael (Eds.), Revolutionary Founders: Rebels, Radicals, and Reformers in the Making of the Nation, (pp. 135-154). New York, USA: Alfred A. Knopf.
- McDonnell, M. (2011). Men out of Time: Confronting History and Myth. William and Mary Quarterly, 68(4), 644-648. [More Information]
2010
- McDonnell, M. (2010). Dancing with Shadows: Biography and the Making and Remaking of the Atlantic World. In Desley Deacon, Penny Russell and Angela Woollacott (Eds.), Transnational Lives: Biographies of Global Modernity, 1700-present, (pp. 54-66). Houndsmills: Palgrave Macmillan.
2009
- McDonnell, M. (2009). Il a Epousé une Sauvagesse': Indian and Métis Persistence Across Imperial and National Borders. In Tony Ballantyne and Antoinette Burton (Eds.), Moving Subjects: Gender, Mobility and Intimacy in an Age of Global Empire, (pp. 149-171). Chicago: University of Illinois Press.
2007
- McDonnell, M. (2007). "Fit for Common Service?" Class, Race, and Recruitment in Revolutionary Virginia. In John Resch and Walter Sargent (Eds.), War and Society in the American Revolution: Mobilization and Home Fronts, (pp. 103-131). Dekalb, Illinois, USA: Northern Illinois University Press.
- McDonnell, M. (2007). Empire and nation: The American revolution in the Atlantic world. Journal of Southern History, 73(3), 683-685.
- McDonnell, M. (2007). The Politics of War: Race, Class, and conflict in Revolutionary Virgina. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press.
2006
- McDonnell, M. (2006). Class War? Class Struggles During the American Revolution in Virginia. William and Mary Quarterly, 63(2), 305-344.
- McDonnell, M. (2006). Mobilization in Virginia. Encyclopedia of the American Revolution. Charles Scribners & Sons Publishing.
2005
- McDonnell, M. (2005). Paths not yet taken, voices not yet heard: rethinking Atlantic history. In Ann Curthoys, Marilyn Lake (Eds.), Connected Worlds: History in Transnational Perspective Volume 2004, (pp. 45-61). Australia: ANU E Press.
- McDonnell, M., Moses, A. (2005). Raphael Lemkin as Historian of Genocide in the Americas. Journal of Genocide Research, 7(4), 501-529. [More Information]
- McDonnell, M. (2005). The King is Dead! Long Live the King? Australasian Journal of American Studies (AJAS), 24(1), 59-74.
2004
- McDonnell, M. (2004). A World Turned ''Topsy Turvy'': Robert Munford, The Patriots, And The Crisis Of The Revolution In Virginia. William and Mary Quarterly, 61(2), 1-53. [More Information]
- McDonnell, M. (2004). Jane T. Merritt. At The Crossroads: Indians and Empires on a Mid-Atlantic Frontier, 1700-1763 (review). American Historical Review, 109(1), 175-176.
2001
- McDonnell, M. (2001). Charles-Michel Mouet de Langlade: Warrior, Soldier and Intercultural Window on the Sixty Years War for the Great Lakes. In David C. Skaggs and Larry Nelson (Eds.), The Sixty Years War for the Great Lakes, 1754-1816, (pp. 79-104). United States of America: Michigan State University Press.
- McDonnell, M. (2001). National Identity and the American War for Independence: A Reappraisal. Australasian Journal of American Studies (AJAS), 20(1), 3-17.
Selected Grants
2017
- Facing New Worlds: Comparative Histories of Australasia and North America, Fullagar K, McDonnell M, Hansen D, Australian Research Council (ARC)/Linkage Projects (LP)
2016
- War Stories: The Meaning of the American Revolution, McDonnell M, Australian Research Council (ARC)/Discovery Projects (DP)