Dr Matthew Ward

Contact Details

m.c.ward@dundee.ac.uk

Tel: +44 (0) 1382 3 84181

Profile

Before joining the Programme in 1992 I completed my postgraduate work in the United States at the College of William and Mary where I also taught a number of courses.

My current research examines the Seven Years' War in North America and its effects on Native Americans, French-Canadians and Anglo-American settlers.

More broadly I am interested in Britain's involvement in early America, and the interaction of the British Empire with different peoples. This is reflected in my background, as I have been described in one review of my work as a 'genuinely trans-Atlantic product' with English roots, an American PhD, Canadian research interests, living and working in Scotland. These research interests take me to both sides of the Atlantic, conducting much of my research in archives in London, Canada and the United States, and giving conference papers on both sides of the Atlantic.

Teaching Interests

My current teaching focuses on early American History from 1600 to 1800, and in particular on Native American and "frontier" history. I teach a number of modules on American History including a level three module 'Early American History', a Special Subject 'From Wilderness to Borderland: The Early American Frontier,' and co-teach a module with Bob Harris 'The Revolutionary Crisis in Britain and America, c.1760-1787.'

In my teaching I try to integrate as much of my research skills and interests as possible. This can include introducing students to databases I have used in my research - for which I was presented with a Teaching Award in 2003 - or integrating a range of documentary and visual sources into my teaching. Not, surprisingly my teaching closely echoes my research interests.

Research

• Publications
• Research Statement
• Suggested areas for postgraduate supervision
• Research Problems

Publications

Books

• Breaking the Backcountry: The Seven Years' War in Virginia and Pennsylvania, 1754-1765 (University of Pittsburgh Press, 2003).
• 1759: Britain's Conquest of Canada (Tempus, 2005).

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Chapters/Articles

• 'The North American Militias: Lessons Learned and Unlearned' in Roger Chickering & Stig Förster, eds., War in an Age of Revolution: The Wars of American Independence and the French Revolution, 1776-1815 (Cambridge University Press, 2006).
• 'The Indians our real friends': The British Army and the Ohio Indians, 1758-1774' in Daniel P. Barr (ed.), The Boundaries Between Us: Natives, Newcomers, and the Struggle for the Old Northwest, 1740-1840, (Kent State University Press, 2006).
• '''The Microbes of War:'' The British Army and Epidemic Disease amongst the Ohio Indians, 1758-1763', in David K. Skaggs and Larry L. Nelson (eds.), The Sixty Years War for the Great Lakes, (Michigan State University Press, 2001), pp.63-78.
• 'Redeeming the Captives: Pennsylvania Captives amongst the Ohio Indians, 1755-1765,' Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography, CXXV, 2001, pp.161-189.
• '''The European Method of Warring is not Practised Here'' The Failure of British Military Strategy in the Ohio Valley, 1755-1763', War in History, 4, 1997 pp. 247-263.
• 'Fighting the ''Old Women'': Indian Strategy on the Virginia and Pennsylvania Frontier 1754-1758,' Virginia Magazine of History and Biography, CIII, 1995, pp. 297-320.
• 'An Army of Servants: The Pennsylvania Regiment during the Seven Years' War,' Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography, CXIX, 1995, pp. 75-93.

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Research Statement

My main research field is eighteenth-century North American history in particular the interaction between European and American settlers and Native Americans.

I view early American history in many ways as an extension of British history and I do not limit my study to the current United States, but also include Canada and the West Indies.

My early work focused on the impact of the Seven Years' War in Virginia and Pennsylvania. My current research looks more broadly at the development of imperial relations in the mid-eighteenth century and in particular the relationship between Native Americans, Anglo-American settlers and the British Army in the mid-west and Great Lakes region.

In the longer term I will be looking at the early trans-Appalachian frontier focusing on two issues: the development of violence in the west, and the role of cultural changes in Native American population decline.

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Suggested Areas for Postgraduate Supervision

The British Army and its relationship with Native Americans and Euro-Americans in the eighteenth century.

The fur trade in the trans-Appalachian West.

The first British Empire.

The early American frontier and backcountry.

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Research Problems

In the past decade work on both sides of the Atlantic has transformed our understanding of the nature of the early American 'frontier.' We now see the area as a dynamic region of exchange between different cultures and different peoples. I am particularly interested in examining this 'cultural interchange' and in particular some of the following issues.

Was violence always endemic to frontier culture?

How did the presence of the British army in the trans-Appalachian west and on the Great Lakes affect relations between settlers and Native Americans?

How can we explain Native American population decline in the eighteenth century?

How did Anglo-French and Anglo-American competition in the mid-west and Great Lakes region affect the lives of the region's Native American inhabitants?

How important was the Ohio Valley and Great Lakes region to the British Empire in the second half of the eighteenth century?

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