Historians honoured: Natalie Zemon Davis

NZD by David Levine, (NYRB)

Natalie Zemon Davis, historian at Princeton University and professor emeritus of the University of Toronto history department, was recently presented with the American National Humanities Award by President Obama.

At the New York Review of Books blog, Davis describes how the FBI helped shape her historical career -- and (though she does not say it here) made her and her husband longtime Torontonians. Indeed she received the Order of Canada a year before the Humanities Award.

I have wanted to be a historian of hope. We can take heart from the fact that no matter how dire the situation, some will find means to resist, some will find means to cope, and some will remember and tell stories about what happened.