Dr Colin Nicolson

Senior Lecturer

History University of Stirling, Stirling, FK9 4LA

Dr Colin Nicolson

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About me

About me

Colin Nicolson is a leading expert on the history of the American Revolution. His work focuses on the origins of the Revolution in colonial Boston and the Imperial Crisis of 1765-1776. He is an elected fellow of the Massachusetts Historical Society and an elected member of the Colonial Society of Massachusetts. He has recently completed a twenty-year externally funded project, the Papers of Francis Bernard (6 vols.) and co-authored a book on the pre-Revolutionary politics and friendship of John Adams. His contribution to REF 2021 included three double-weighted four star books. For REF 2028 he has published another double-weighted four star book, and is currently writing another book on John Adams. "Mr. Adams" is the first book about the first United States diplomatic mission to Great Britain, 1785–88, and the wider impact of John Adams's diplomatic practice and political thought on US foreign policy, 1783–1801. He loves family, fine books, and music, and is a dedicated writer and enthusiastic teacher.

He presently supervises four PhD students. He is principal supervisor to PGRs working on the Massachusetts privateers, John Adams, and US-French diplomacy, 1778-88, and American Rangers in the Revolutionary War. He has also supervised and co-supervised projects on Scots in the American Revolution, London policing, American evangelicalism, slave fugitivity, colonial America, and modern US history. He encourages PhD applications from those aiming to investigate the American Revolution Era, Friendship, John Adams, Revolutionary biography and prosopography, and British-American relations. Successfully completed PhDs are holding academic positions and publishing their first books in 2023 and 2024. Dr. Jamie Macpherson "Virtuous Intimates: The Political Friendships of John Adams, c. 1774-1801" (2020). Dr. Macpherson is teaching at Stirling and turning his PhD into a book for Routledge (2023). Dr. Nicola Martin, "The Cultural Paradigms of British Imperialism in the Militarisation of Scotland and North America, 1745-1775," (2019). Dr. Martin is presently teaching at the University of the Highlands and Islands and also writing a book based on the PhD. Shaun Wallace, "Slave Fugitivity and Literacy in Georgia and Maryland, 1790-1810," (2018), is a member of the history faculty at the University of Bristol and publishing In Pursuit of Freedom: Enslaved Runaways and Resistance in the U.S. South, 1790-1860 (University of Georgia Press). Christopher F. Minty, "Mobilization and Voluntarism: The Political Origins of Loyalism in New York, c. 1768–1778," (2015). Dr. Minty, formerly of the Adams Papers, is an Editor at the Center for Digital Editing, University of Virginia, and the author of Unfriendly to Liberty: Loyalist Networks and the Coming of the American Revolution in New York City (Cornell Univ. Press, 2023). Stuart Salmon "The Loyalist regiments of the American Revolution" (2010). Dr. Salmon is presently teaching at the University of Edinburgh and writing on the Loyalists.

Community Contribution

Scottish Qualifications Authority
Scottish Education Department and Scottish Qualifications Authority: Question setter (1995-2001) and Principal Examiner (1998-2001) for (a) the CSYS in History and (b) the Advanced Higher in History, both in field of study (g): the American Civil War. Scottish Consultative Council on the Curriculum and Higher Still Development Unit. Consultant on the preparation of study packs for the new Advanced Higher in American History, 2000-2001.


Divisional / Faculty Contribution

Postgraduate Director. History, Heritage and Politics

Postgraduate Director. History, Heritage and Politics since c.2017

Director of Undergraduate Programmes in History. School of Arts and Humanities: History and Politics Division

Postgraduate Director. School of History and Politics

Research Committee. School of History and Politics

Student Recruitment Officer. Department of History

Website Administrator. School of History and Politics

Faculty of Arts

staff appointment committees

Faculty of Arts

Board member and subject representative

Deputy Director for Postgraduate Training (School of Arts and Humanities)
Since 2012, have recently taken a lead role in developing doctoral training in the School of Arts and Humanities.Doctoral training provided by the School of Arts and Humanities (SAH) complements the Skills Development Programme run by the university's Stirling Graduate School (SGS). While the SGS programme focuses largely on researcher development and generic skills, the SAH activities concentrate on enhancing and applying subject skills within and beyond the academic environment. The SAH Postgraduate Skills Week in December, run jointly with the School of Applied Social Science, offers cross-disciplinary sessions on employability skills (writing, teaching, presenting research papers, publishing research, and understanding the impact agenda) and two days of intensive subject-focused sessions covering qualitative and quantitative research methods and topical research issues and approaches. I also co-ordinate Arts Training Modules for Masters programmes.


Education

Ph.D.

M.A. Hons. in History, summa cum laude


Event / Presentation

Imaginary Friends: John Adams and Jonathan Sewall, and their American Revolution. Loyalism and Loyalty in the British Empire Workshop

This workshop explores the meaning, character and diversity of loyalism in the British Empire. Inspired by a recent growth in the literature on loyalism in old- and new-world contexts, Loyalism and Loyalty in the British Empire is intended to deepen our understanding of a topic which connects with numerous themes in British, imperial and British World studies, but one which has so far lacked a comparative perspective that considers how loyalism and loyalists differed across time and space.

John Adams and the US Presidency. A Response to Neil York on 'Plato and the American President: Thirty-five as the Age of Eligibility'. Seminar on Constitutional Thought and History

Panel on Neil York on 'Plato and the American President: Thirty-five as the Age of Eligibility'

Response to Neil York on 'Plato and the American President: Thirty-five as the Age of Eligibility'. Seminar in Constitutional Thought and History

Panel on a Paper by Prof. Neil L. York. Participants: 

Friendship in Tough Times: John Adams and the Terrors of War, 1775. School of Arts and Humanities (Stirling) Postgraduate Conference, 2014. Inter-Disciplinary Reflections in Adversity
University of Stirling

John Adams and the British Question. British Group in Early American History Annual Conference

http://www.britishearlyamerica.stir.ac.uk/conference.html

The Stirling experience: intermediate assessment. Higher Education Academy. East Midlands Workshop. Preparing Undergraduates for the Dissertation
Higher Education Academy

http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/…tation_20100616/
The workshop had been devised as a regional event – hopefully the first of many in the East Midlands – to discuss the key issues involved in preparing students, and indeed departments, for the undergraduate dissertation.

A Plan “to banish all the Scotchmen”: Victimization and Political Mobilization in Pre-Revolutionary Boston . Global Nations? Irish and Scottish Expansion since the 16th Century

Governor Francis Bernard and the Origins of the American Revolution. University of Edinburgh Modern History Research Seminar Series

The "Infamas Govener": Francis Bernard and the American Revolution. University of Stirling, Department of History, Research Seminar Programme 1995

Historical Documentary Editing
Workshop for (online) Summer School of the Scottish Graduate School of Arts and Humanities

Making Boston Pay: Or How To Defend An Empire Without Provoking A Revolution. University of Dundee, History Department Research Seminar Programme 2005

Negotiating British Imperialism: Gov. Francis Bernard and the Imperial Crisis, 1764-1769
Colonial Society of Massachusetts
http://boston1775.blogspot.co.uk/search?q=colin+nicolson

Negotiating British Imperialism: Gov. Francis Bernard and the Stamp Act Crisis, 1764-67. Colonial Society of Massachusetts Annual Meeting, 2012

Presenter. Book Launch for Bernard Papers Vol. 2
Colonial Society of Massachusetts

The ‘Infamas Govener:’ Francis Bernard and the Origins of the American Revolution in Massachusetts. British Association of American Studies, Annual Conference

Writing Historical Biography
University of Stirling
Workshop for Scottish Graduate School of Arts and Humanities

Writing Historical Biography
University of Stirling
Workshop for Scottish Graduate School of Arts and Humanities


External Examiners and Validations

Megan King, PhD. ' "Let us dare to read, speak, think, and write": Patriot Fundamentalism and Nonviolent Civil Resistance in Boston and Philadelphia, 1764-1776'.
University of Kent

University of Kent PhD Examination

Krysten Blackstone, PhD. "The Hardest Conflict: Morale in the Continental Army During The American Revolutionary War, 1775-1783"
University of Edinburgh

University of Edinburgh. PhD Examination

Barbara Ball, Ph.D. “Differential development on the Ohio River, 1850-1880: A historical and genealogical study of two small towns in Ohio and a rural district of West Virginia, before and after the U.S. Civil War”
University of Strathclyde

University of Strathclyde. PhD Examination

Robert Donald MacNiven, PhD. "Slaughter was Commenced: A Study of American Revolutionary War Massacres"
University of Edinburgh

University of Edinburgh. PhD Examination

Michael Griggs, Ph.D. "‘For Christ’s Crown and Covenant’: An Historical Interpretation of Scottish Covenanting Political Theology and its Contribution to the American Revolution in the Backcountry of North Carolina"
University of Edinburgh

University of Edinburgh. PhD Examination

Iain MacIver, PhD. "Revolutionary Governorship: The Evolution of Executive Power in Virginia, 1758-1781"
University of Edinburgh

University of Edinburgh. PhD Examination

MPhil in History
University of Glasgow

Finn Pollard, PhD. “In Search of 'the American, this new man': The Literary Quest for an American National Character, 1760-1826
University of Edinburgh

University of Edinburgh. PhD Examination

MPhil in American Studies
University of Dundee

American History 2
University of Edinburgh

History Degree Programme
University of Dundee

MSc. in Historical Research
University of Edinburgh

Coffee, Chocolate and Tobacco: Overseas Trade and European Consumption
University of Glasgow


Other Academic Activities

peer reviewer for articles submitted
The William and Mary Quarterly, The Journal of American History, The Historian and Massachusetts Historical Review


Other Project

Imaginary Friends

A study of the friendships of John Adams during the advent of the American Revolution, 1760-76.

The Bernard Papers Project

http://bernardpapers.com
The Bernard Papers project is publishing a multi-volume documentary edition of the papers of Francis Bernard, governor of colonial Massachusetts between 1760 and 1769. Edited by Colin Nicolson (University of Stirling),the Bernard Paperswill provide five volumes oftranscribed manuscriptsfor the study of colonial Massachusetts and the American Revolution, followed by a calendar volume of Gov. Bernard's entire collection. Bernard's entire collection. The projectaims to understand how andwhyimperial officials in the American Colonies struggled to implement Britishcolonial policy in the face of an incipient revolutionary movement. It provides research materials for historiansinvestigating transatlantic connections, political behavior, and ideology, andreveals the disintegration of British imperialism in Massachusetts before the outbreak of the American Revolutionary War in 1775. stablished in 2000, the Bernard Papers is funded by the Colonial Society of Massachusetts. In 2011 the editor was awarded a Research Fellowship by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (UK) to complete research for the project. The AHRC evaluation described the Bernard Papers project as "an outstanding proposal meeting world-class standards of scholarship, originality, quality and significance."


Professional membership

British Association for American Studies
Royal Historical Society, Organization of American Historians and European Association of American Studies

Elected Fellow of the Massachusetts Historical Society
Massachusetts Historical Review
http://www.masshist.org/about

Elected Member Colonial Society of Massachusetts
Colonial Society of Massachusetts

European Association of American Studies
European Association of American Studies

Fellow of the Royal Historical Society
Royal Historical Society
http://www.royalhistoricalsociety.org/

Organization of American Historians
Organization of American Historians

Royal Historical Society
Royal Historical Society

Scottish Association for the Study of America
Scottish Association for the Study of America
Founding member and office-bearer: secretary (1999-2001), treasurer, 2001; chair (2003-05).


University Contribution

School of Arts and Humanities

 Co-ordinator of postgraduate training in ARTP01 and ARTP02.


Research (4)

He is editing the Bernard Papers, a six-volume historical documentary edition of considerable relevance to scholars of the imperial crisis on the eve of the Revolution. The project has been funded by the Colonial Society of Massachusetts and the Arts and Humanities Research Council Research Fellowship. The AHRC described the Bernard Papers project as "an outstanding proposal meeting world-class standards of scholarship, originality, quality and significance." He has just published a book on John Adams and his political friendships and is a member of the editorial advisory board for the Select Correspondence of Thomas Hutchinson.

Projects

Bernard Papers
PI: Dr Colin Nicolson
Funded by: Colonial Society of Massachusetts

The Bernard Papers
PI: Dr Colin Nicolson
Funded by: Colonial Society of Massachusetts

The Bernard Papers
PI: Dr Colin Nicolson
Funded by: Colonial Society of Massachusetts

AHRC Fellowship - The Bernard Papers
PI: Dr Colin Nicolson
Funded by: Arts and Humanities Research Council

Outputs (66)

Outputs

Authored Book

Nicolson C & Dudley Edwards O (2018) Imaginary Friendship in the American Revolution: John Adams and Jonathan Sewall. 1st ed. Perspectives on Early America. Abingdon: Routledge. https://www.routledge.com/Imaginary-Friendship-in-the-American-Revolution-John-Adams-and-Jonathan/Nicolson-Edwards/p/book/9781138703827


Book Chapter

Nicolson C (2017) Understanding the Boston Stamp Act Riots, 1765. In: Marsh B & Rapport M (eds.) Understanding and Teaching the Age of Revolutions. Harvey Goldberg Series for Understanding and Teaching History. Madison, WI, USA: University of Wisconsin Press. https://uwpress.wisc.edu/books/5416.htm


Edited Book

Nicolson C (ed.) (2017) The Papers of Francis Bernard, Governor of Colonial Massachusetts, 1760-69. Vol. 2: 1764-1765 [Bernard Papers, Volume 2, Digital Edition], Digital Edition ed. Publications of the Colonial Society of Massachusetts, 81. Boston: The Colonial Society of Massachusetts. https://www.colonialsociety.org/publications/3111/volume-81-papers-francis-bernard-volume-2-1759-1763


Edited Book

Nicolson C (ed.) (2017) The Papers of Francis Bernard, Governor of Colonial Massachusetts, 1760-69. Vol. 1: 1759-1763 [Bernard Papers Volume 1, Digital Edition], Digital Edition ed. Publications of the Colonial Society of Massachusetts, 73. Boston: The Colonial Society of Massachusetts; distributed by the Univ. of Virginia Press. https://www.colonialsociety.org/node/2068


Conference Paper (unpublished)

Nicolson C (2016) Bringing the Stamp Act Riots into the Classroom. 130th Annual Meeting of the American Historical Association, Atlanta, GA, USA, 07.01.2016-10.01.2016. https://www.historians.org/annual-meeting/past-meetings/2016-annual-meeting/2016-program


Edited Book

Nicolson C (ed.) (2015) The Papers of Francis Bernard, Governor of Colonial Massachusetts, 1760-69, Vol. 4: 1768 [Bernard Papers Volume 4, Digital Edition], Digital Edition (open access) ed. Publications of the Colonial Society of Massachusetts, 86. Boston, MA, USA: The Colonial Society of Massachusetts. https://www.colonialsociety.org/node/2810


Conference Paper (unpublished)

Nicolson C (2015) The Case for the Prosecution: John Adams and History. British Group in Early American History 2015 Conference, University of Sheffield, 03.09.2015-06.09.2015. https://www.baas.ac.uk/project/british-group-of-early-american-historians/


Conference Paper (unpublished)

Nicolson C & Dudley Edwards O (2014) John Adams and The British Question. British Group in Early American History Annual Conference, University of Edinburgh, 04.09.2014-07.09.2014. http://www.britishearlyamerica.stir.ac.uk/conference/2014prog.pdf


Working Paper

Nicolson C (2013) Catalogue of the Papers of Francis Bernard. The Bernard Papers. http://www.bernardpapers.com/media/c1d472da1076163ffff86e3ffffe417.pdf


Book Chapter

Nicolson C (2013) The Revolutionary Politics of John Adams, 1760-1775. In: Waldstreicher D (ed.) A Companion to John Adams and John Quincy Adams. Blackwell Companions to American History Series. Malden: Wiley-Blackwell, pp. 60-77. http://eu.wiley.com/WileyCDA/WileyTitle/productCd-0470655585.html


Book Chapter

Nicolson C (2012) The Papers of Francis Bernard, Governor of Colonial Massachusetts, 1760-69: Volume 2 (1764-65) (Introduction). In: Nicolson C (ed.) The Papers of Francis Bernard, Governor of Colonial Massachusetts, 1760-69: Volume 2 (1764-65). Publications of the Colonial Society of Massachusetts. Charlottesville, VA: University of Virginia Press / Colonial Society of Massachusetts, pp. 1-13. http://bernardpapers.com/2173.html


Website Content

Nicolson C (2012) The Bernard Papers. 29.02.2012. http://www.bernardpapers.com/2101.html


Lecture

Nicolson C (2010) The Stirling experience: intermediate assessment of the dissertation (Presentation) Higher Education Academy. East Midlands Workshop. Preparing Undergraduates for the Dissertation, University of Lincoln, 16.06.2010-16.06.2010. http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/cross_fac/heahistory/elibrary/internal/cr_lavender_undergraddissertation_20100616/


Book Review

Nicolson C (2009) Taming Democracy: 'The People', the Founders, and the Troubled Ending of the American Revolution. Review of: Taming Democracy: ‘The People’, the Founders, and the Troubled Ending of the American Revolution, by Terry Bouton. (Oxford: Oxford U.P., 2007; pp. 332. ISBN: 978-0195378566. English Historical Review, 124 (507), pp. 449-451. https://doi.org/10.1093/ehr/cep046


Book Chapter

Nicolson C (2008) The Papers of Francis Bernard, Volume 1: Governor of Colonial Massachusetts, 1760-1769 (Introduction). In: Nicolson C (ed.) The Papers of Francis Bernard, Volume 1: Governor of Colonial Massachusetts, 1760-1769. Publications of the Colonial Society of Massachusetts, 73. Charlottesville, VA: University of Virginia Press / Colonial Society of Massachusetts, pp. 1-16. http://books.upress.virginia.edu/detail%2Fbooks%2Fgroup-4057.xml?q=author%3A%22Nicolson%2C%20Colin%22


Book Review

Nicolson C (2003) The first American revolution: Before Lexington and Concord. Review of: The First American Revolution: Before Lexington and Concord. By Ray Raphael. New York: New Press, 2002. xiv, 273 pp. isbn 1-56584-730-X.. Journal of American History, 89 (4), pp. 1509-1510. http://www.jstor.org/stable/3092570; https://doi.org/10.2307/3092570


Book Review

Nicolson C (2001) Crucible of War: The Seven Years' War and the Fate of Empire in British North America, 1754-1766 by Fred Anderson. Review of: Crucible of War: The Seven Years'War and the Fate of Empire in British North America, 1754-1766, by Fred Anderson (New York: Knopf, 2000); pp. 862; ISBN: 0571205356. English Historical Review, 116 (467), pp. 736-737. http://www.jstor.org/stable/579876; https://doi.org/10.1093/ehr/116.467.736


Book Review

Nicolson C (1999) Parades and the politics of the street: Festive culture in the early American republic. Review of: Parades and the Politics of the Street: Festive Culture in the Early American Republic (Early American Studies), Simon P. Newman, Philadelphia, University of Pennsylvania Press, 1999, 288pp. ISBN-13: 978-0812217247. Journal of American Studies, 33 (1), pp. 199-200.


Book Review

Nicolson C (1999) Civic wars: Democracy and public life in the American city during the nineteenth century by Mary P. Ryan. Review of: Civic Wars: Democracy and Public Life in the American City during the Nineteenth Century, Mary P. Ryan, (Berkeley and Los Angeles, Calif., and London: University of California Press, 1997). Pp. 383. ISBN: 0 520 20441 7.. Journal of American Studies, 33 (1), pp. 125-126. http://journals.cambridge.org/action/displayFulltext?type=1&fid=8276&jid=AMS&volumeId=33&issueId=01&aid=8275&bodyId=&membershipNumber=&societyETOCSession=


Book Review

Nicolson C (1997) Yankee sailors in British gaols: Prisoners of war at Forton and Mill, 1777-1783. Review of: Yankee Sailors in British Gaols: Prisoners of War at Forton and Mill, 1777-1783, Sheldon S. Cohen, Newark, University of Delaware Press,1995, 280pp. ISBN-13: 978-0874135640. History, 82 (268), pp. 634-635.


Book Review

Nicolson C & Allen P (1995) 'We didn't have Flies until these White Folks Came'. Review of: Roy Rosenzweig, Steve Brier, and Josh Brown, Who Built America? From the Centennial Celebration of 1876 to the Great War of 1914. CD-ROM, New York: The Voyager Company, 1995. ISBN 978-1581250442. Craft, 12, pp. 12-13.


Book Chapter

Nicolson C (1991) Forms of Community Representation and Participation in Urban Scotland. In: MacGuinness H (ed.) Housing, Industry and Community Development in the West of Scotland: The New Agendas. Seminar papers. Paisley: Local Government Centre, Paisley College, pp. 33-58.


Teaching

Teaching

Teaching

HISU9D4 US History from 1789 to 1890

This thematic module examines (i) slavery in ante-bellum America, (ii) the Civil War and Reconstruction, and (iii) the American West.

HISU9D5 US History since 1890

This thematic module considers US relations with the wider world and selected themes in US political history up to c.2009.

HISU9D7 The American Revolution

This year-long module facilitates in-depth study of the origins and nature of the American Revolution, my area of research expertise.

HISU9S3 Reputations in History

HISU9X7 History Dissertation

HTRPP11 Historiography

HTRPP12 Sources and Methods

HTRPP13 Part time Dissertation for the MRes in Historical Research

ARTP01 Training for Masters in the Arts and Humanities

ARTP02 Training for Masters in the Arts and Humanities