Ira Berlin

Ira Berlin (1941-2018) was an American historian specializing in slavery and African-American history, renowned for his works Many Thousands Gone: The First Two Centuries of Slavery in North America (1998, Bancroft Prize) and Generations of Captivity: A History of African-American Slaves (2003), as well as founding the Freedmen and Southern Society Project. He served as president of the Organization of American Historians and advised documentaries like HBO's Unchained Memories. Berlin transformed understandings of slavery's diversity across time and region, earning awards including the Albert J. Beveridge Award and Fellowship in the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.