Heather Cox Richardson receives Tikkun Olam Award

Award for Scholarly and Professional Distinction

Tikkun Olam Prize for Promoting Public Historical Literacy

[Note: the formal translation of Tikkun Olam is “to repair the world.”]

The Tikkun Olam Prize for Promoting Public Historical Literacy addresses a major problem in American public culture, which inhibits the operation of democratic institutions, and processes: the breadth and depth of historical illiteracy. This prize honors individuals whose work has promoted literacy in public culture, with the abiding hope that such work will indeed help “to repair the world.” We look for sustained historical work that contributes significantly to historical literacy (defined as “meaningful knowledge about the past, historical context, and ability to think historically and critically”) in American public culture, with an emphasis on history education (broadly construed) beyond the academy.