Hamilton Affair (Cobbs) - Author Bio

Author Bio
• Birth—July 28, 1956
• Where—Gardena, California, USA
• Education—B.A., University of California-San Diego; Ph.D., Stanford University
• Awards—(see below)
• Currently—teaches history at Texas A&M University


Elizabeth Cobbs holds the Melbern Glasscock Chair in American History at Texas A&M University and is a research fellow at Stanford's Hoover Institution. She is a historian, commentator, and author of seven books, including two novels, a textbook, and three non-fiction works. She is also credited as screenwriter on the film adaptation of her book American Umpire.

Background
Cobbs was born in Gardena, California, and began her writing career at the age of 15, serving as a community organizer and publications coordinator for the Center for Women's Studies and Services in Southern California. During this period, she founded and headed several innovative projects for adults and young people. In recognition for her efforts, she earned the international John D. Rockefeller Youth Award in 1979 — at the age of 23 — for exceptional service to humanity.

Cobbs studied literature at the University of California, San Diego and graduated Summa Cum Laude in 1983. She earned her M.A. and PhD in American History from Stanford University in 1988. While at Stanford, she won the David Potter Award for Outstanding History Graduate Student. Following graduation, she won the Allan Nevins Prize from the Society of American Historians for best dissertation on U.S. history.

She taught nine years at the University of San Diego, becoming chair of the History Department, and then accepted the Dwight E. Stanford Chair in of American Foreign Relations at San Diego State University.She has been a Fulbright scholar in Ireland and a Fellow at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington D.C.

In 2008, Dr. Cobbs served on the jury for the Pulitzer Prize in History, and from 1999 to 2006, she served two terms on the Historical Advisory Committee of the US State Department from, advising the government on the declassification of top secret documents and transparency in government.

Books and publications
Dr. Cobbs has published over 40 articles in newspapers and magazines in the United States such as The Jerusalem Post, Chicago Tribune, New York Times, Reuters, China Daily News, National Public Radio, Washington Independent, San Diego Union Tribune and several other distinguished publications, including several pieces for The New York Times. Her first nonfiction book, The Rich Neighbor Policy (1988, 1992), won the Allan Nevins Prize from the Society of American Historians (as a dissertation) and later the Bernath Prize from the Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations (as a published book).

She has since published six more books about American history and politics, winning four literary prizes: two for nonfiction and two for fiction. She also wrote and co-produced the PBS documentary American Umpire which is based on her book of the same name. It explores America's foreign policy "grand strategy" for the next 50 years.

Books
1992 - The Rich Neighbor Policy: Rockefeller and Kaiser in Brazil
1998 - All You Need Is Love: The Peace Corps and the Spirit of the 1960s
2002 - Major Problems in History, Vol. II (co-editor)
2011 - Broken Promises: A Novel of the Civil War
2013 - American Umpire
2016 - The Hamilton Affair
2017 - Hello Girls: America's First Women Soldiers

Awards
2009 - San Diego Book Award
2009 - Director's Mention, Langum Prize in American Historical Fiction
1993 - Stuart Bernath Book Prize, Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations
1989 - Allan Nevins Prize, Society of American Historians (for Ph.D. dissertation)
 (Author bio adapted from Wikipedia. Retrieved 10/27/2017.)