Caleb McDaniel

W. Caleb McDaniel is a historian specializing in 19th-century U.S. history, the Civil War Era, and the struggle over slavery. He holds the Mary Gibbs Jones Professor of Humanities and Professor of History at Rice University's Department of History. As co-chair of the Rice University Task Force on Slavery, Segregation, and Racial Injustice, he focuses on historical justice and racial equity. His research bridges transnational abolitionist networks and U.S. slavery.

Education: PhD (Johns Hopkins University), MA and BA (Texas A&M University). Affiliations include the American Historical Association, Organization of American Historians, and Society for Historians of the Early American Republic.

Research emphasizes slavery, abolition, and democracy's evolution. His Pulitzer Prize-winning book Sweet Taste of Liberty (2019) explores post-Reconstruction restitution, while The Problem of Democracy (2013) reinterprets Garrisonian abolitionists as transatlantic democracy theorists. His work appears in Journal of the Civil War Era, Smithsonian, and The Atlantic.

Honors include the Pulitzer Prize, Merle Curti Award, and Rice’s Excellence in Research award. His scholarship addresses historical memory, social justice, and the intersection of U.S. and global reform movements.