CHaSS Grad Receives Billington Prize

Jared Farmer, a Utah State University College of Humanities and Social Sciences alum, is the recipient of the 2015 Ray Allen Billington Prize awarded by the Organization of American Historians (OAH).

Farmer graduated magna cum laude in 1996 with departmental and university honors in history.

The prestigious Billington prize is awarded biennially to the author of “the best book about American frontier history,” which includes the pioneer periods of all geographical areas, and comparisons between American frontiers and others. The prize honors Ray Allen Billington, who served as OAH president from 1962-1963. He was a prolific writer about American frontiers.

Farmer was honored for his book Trees in Paradise: A California History.

The book tells the history of the Golden State through its trees, both those brought to the state beginning in the booming Gold Rush era (citrus, eucalyptus) as well as native varieties such as the giant redwoods.

Botanist Sir Peter Crane, author of “Ginkgo,” commented on Farmer’s book.

“[The book is] a sweeping and brilliantly observed history of the promise and pitfalls of the California Dream, as seen through the intertwined lives of trees and people,” Crane said.

Farmer received his undergraduate degree in history from Utah State University and went on to earn a master’s degree from University of Montana and his doctorate from Stanford University. He currently is an associate professor of history at the State University of New York – Stony Brook.

“Jared is one of the most innovative cultural and environmental historians working today,” said USU professor of history David Rich Lewis, who taught Farmer as an undergrad. “He has a knack for asking obvious questions about historical topics rooted in the natural world, and then turning the evidence and answers over and around in unexpected ways that end up unsettling our assumptions about the past and present. It helps that he’s an accomplished storyteller and visual artist.”

Those skills as both storyteller and artist also figured prominently in his receipt of The Hiett Prize in the Humanities in 2014.

Considered one of the most prestigious honors in the humanities, the Hiett Prize each year is awarded by the Dallas Institute of Humanities and Culture to “celebrate minds of extraordinary promise.”

The award is designed to “identify candidates who are in the early stages of careers devoted to the humanities and whose work shows extraordinary promise and has a significant public component related to contemporary culture.”

In awarding Farmer the Hiett Prize, judges noted not only Trees in Paradise, but his 2008 book On Zion’s Mount: Mormons, Indians, and the American Landscape. That work won five prizes, including the Francis Parkman Prize from the Society of American Historians for the best-written non-fiction book on an American theme.

In the Hiett Award’s short lifespan — only 10 years and 10 recipients — two USU graduates have received the honor.

USU alum Brad S. Gregory won the prize in 2005. Gregory currently is the Dorothy G. Griffin Professor of Early Modern European History at the University of Notre Dame. He received a bachelor’s degree in history from USU.

For his part, Farmer is quick to acknowledge the education he received as a CHaSS student at USU.

“As an Aggie, I'm especially gratified to win a major book prize for American frontier history,” Farmer said. “It was on Old Main Hill where I started doing serious western history with encouragement from professor David Rich Lewis and other USU faculty affiliated with the Western Historical Quarterly.”

Lewis, himself a distinguished historical scholar, is equally willing and even anxious to sing the praises of his former — and now award-winning — student.

“Jared conveys his deep commitment to places, things, and people in everything he does,” Lewis said. “Only 10 years out from his PhD at Stanford — really the beginning of his career — and Jared has already published three highly-regarded books that have earned him international recognition and the most prestigious awards given to American historians. He is already a star in the profession, and still rising.”

Related links:

• Organization of American Historians
• The Ray Allen Billington Prize
• The Hiett Prize in the Humanities
• USU Department of History
• USU College of Humanities and Social Sciences

Writer: Kristin Middaugh, CHaSS communications director, (435) 797-0267, kristin.middaugh@usu.edu