Jared Farmer Book Honored by American Philosophical Society

Jared Farmer, Walter H. Annenberg Professor of History, received the 2023 Jacques Barzun Prize in Cultural History from the American Philosophical Society for his book Elderflora: A Modern History of Ancient Trees, about “the planet’s oldest trees and the making of the modern world.”
 
The Jacques Barzun Prize in Cultural History is awarded annually to the author whose book exhibits “distinguished work in American or European cultural history.” The prize is named for historian and cultural critic Jacques Barzun; it was established by one of his former students.
 
Farmer studies the histories of built and unbuilt environments from the hyperlocal to the planetary. His temporal expertise is the long 19th century; his regional expertise is the North American West. His 2008 book On Zion’s Mount: Mormons, Indians, and the American Landscape won the Francis Parkman Prize from the Society of American Historians, and his 2013 book Trees in Paradise: A California History won the Ray Allen Billington Prize from the Organization of American Historians.