American National Biography

The American National Biography, short ANB, is a biographical reference book that has been published since 1999 Oxford University Press and the National Biography of the United States is tantamount. The responsible editor are currently the historian Mark C. Carnes and John A. Garraty.

The ANB emerged from the Dictionary of American Biography, which gave the American Council of Learned Societies, an umbrella organization of the scientific societies of the United States, in the mid- 1920s in order. Financial support for the project was also recognized by the New York Times. Was modeled on the British Dictionary of National Biography. Under the editorship of Allen Johnson ( until 1931 ) and Dumas Malone ( 1931-1936 ) published 1927-1936 the original twenty volumes with 13,633 biographies of important Americans and some other personalities who have played a role in American history. By 1995, 10 supplementary volumes appeared.

Since many of the biographies over the years no longer corresponded to the state of research, the American Council of Learned Societies decided to a fundamental revision under the title of American National Biography. Was financially support the project, among other things by the Rockefeller Foundation and the National Endowment for the Humanities. The 24 volumes of the new series published in 1999 and include almost 17,500 entries. At the same time an online version (American National Biography Online) was established, which has since been expanded continuously; a first printed supplementary volume appeared in 2002.