William J. Connell (historian): Difference between revisions

{{short description|American historian}}

| name = William J. Connell

| image = William Connell in Santiago.jpg

| caption = William J. Connell in Santiago, Chile, 2014

| birth_date = July 22, 1958

| education = B.A. Yale; Ph.D. UC Berkeley

| employer = [[Seton Hall University]]

'''William John''' ("'''Bill'''") '''Connell''' (born July 22, 1958) is an American [[historian]] and holder of the Joseph M. and Geraldine C. La Motta Chair in Italian Studies at [[Seton Hall University]].<ref>{{cite web|last=Connell|first=William J|title=University Profile|date=September 23, 2015 |url=https://www.shu.edu/profiles/williamconnell.cfm}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|last=Connell|first=William J|title=William Connell on Academia.edu|url=https://setonhall.academia.edu/WilliamConnell}}</ref> He is a leading specialist in Italian history, Early Modern European history and the history of Italian Americans, and he writes broadly on other topics. In 2019 he was named an Andrew Carnegie Fellow.<ref>{{cite web |title=Andrew Carnegie Fellows|url=https://www.carnegie.org/awards/honoree/william-j-connell/}}</ref>

Connell was educated at the [[Trinity School (New York City)]], [[Bronxville High School]], and [[Yale University]], where he belonged to [[Saybrook College]] and the [[Manuscript Society]] and received his B.A. in 1980 summa cum laude. After an internship with U.S. Senator [[Lowell Weicker]] and a job as a gardener on the island of [[Elba]],<ref>{{cite news|title=Giovedi sera Chiostro de Laugier: presentazione letteraria-happening con Bill Connell|url=http://archiviostorico.elbareport.it/tuttogiornalearretrato.aspx?numero=1454|newspaper=Elba Report|date=June 20, 2007}}</ref> he worked in banking for the [[Manufacturers Hanover]] Trust Company and then as research assistant for columnist [[Joseph Alsop]] before entering graduate school in History at the [[University of California, Berkeley]], where he received his Ph.D. in 1989.

Connell taught history at [[Reed College]] in Portland, OR, and at [[Rutgers University]] before moving to Seton Hall University in 1998. From 2003 to 2007 he was Founding Director of the Charles and Joan Alberto Italian Studies Institute.<ref>{{cite web|title=Charles and Joan Alberto Italian Studies Institute|url=http://www.shu.edu/academics/artsci/alberto-institute/}}</ref> He has been a [[U.S.-Italy Fulbright Commission|Fulbright Scholar]] to Italy, an [[I Tatti]] Fellow, a Member of the [[Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton]] and a Juror for the Rome Prize of the [[American Academy in Rome]]. From 1992 to 2020 he was Secretary of the ''[[Journal of the History of Ideas]]'' and he remains active on the Editorial Board. He is a Corresponding Fellow of the Deputazione di Storia Patria per la Toscana and the Società Pistoiese di Storia Patria, and a member of the [[Grolier Club]] of New York City. From 2002 to 2005, and again in 2009-2010, he served on the New Jersey Italian and Italian American Commission as a gubernatorial appointee.<ref>{{cite web|title=State of New Jersey - Italian & Italian American Heritage Commission|url=http://njitalia.nj.gov/members/connell.htm}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|title=PolitickerNJ Wire Feed|url=http://www.politickernj.com/governors-press-office/29918/governor-corzine-files-direct-appointments}}</ref> He was co-chair of the Trustees and chair of the Academic Advisors of the Italian American Heritage Institute at Rutgers University from 2002 to 2005. In 2011 he received the Presidential Award of the Columbian Foundation.<ref>{{cite web|title=Columbian Foundation Award Extravaganza|url=http://www.thesetonian.com/news/shu-professor-honored-for-dedication-to-italian-american-community-1.2645865#.UlAhYX_-uI8}}</ref> His [[NPR]] broadcast, "Machiavelli Faces Unemployment," won the Listener Choice Award as the favorite "Academic Minute" of 2011-2012.<ref>{{cite web|title=WAMC Northeast Public Radio (July 24, 2012)|date=July 24, 2012 |url=http://www.wamc.org/post/second-annual-academic-minute-senior-superlatives}}</ref> In 2013 ''The [[Irish Voice]]'' named him to its Education 100—a list of top US educators of Irish ancestry. Seton Hall University awarded him its Granato Italian Culture Medal in 2016. [[UNICO National]] honored Connell with its Joseph Coccia, Jr. Heritage, Culture and Language Award in 2022.

An interest in the territory that surrounded and supported the city of [[Florence]] during the Renaissance<ref>{{cite journal|last=Connell|first=William J.|title=Il commissario e lo stato territoriale fiorentino|journal=Ricerche Storiche|year=1988|volume=18|issue=3|pages=591–617}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|last=Connell|first=William J.|title=Clientelismo e stato territoriale: il potere fiorentino a Pistoia nel secolo XV|journal=Società e storia|year=1991|volume=14|issue=53|pages=523–543}}</ref> resulted in his book, ''La città dei crucci: fazioni e clientele in uno stato repubblicano del ʼ400'', a study of the social networks underpinning the factionalism of republican Florence and her subject city of [[Pistoia]]. His study of the Lombard nobleman Gaspare [[Pallavicino]] resulted in a new reading of the narrative framework and the discussion of the female courtier in [[Baldassarre Castiglione]]'s ''[[Book of the Courtier]]''.<ref>{{cite journal|last=Connell|first=William J.|title=Un rito iniziatico nel ''Libro del Cortegiano'' di Baldassar Castiglione|journal=Annali della Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa. Classe di Lettere e Filosofia|year=1999|volume=4|series=4|issue=2|pages=473–497 + plates|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gHjtOQAACAAJ}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|last=Connell|first=William J.|title=Gasparo and the Ladies: Coming of Age in Castiglione's ''Book of the Courtier''|journal=Quaderni d'italianistica|year=2002|volume=23|issue=1|pages=5–23|doi=10.33137/q.i..v23i1.9302|url=http://jps.library.utoronto.ca/index.php/qua/article/view/9302/6260|doi-access=free}}</ref> ''Sacrilege and Redemption in Renaissance Florence'' (2005; rev. 2d ed. 2008), co-authored with [[Giles Constable]], recounts the case of a man who was hanged for throwing dung at a painting of the [[Virgin Mary]] and has been published in Italian, Spanish, Russian, Romanian and Farsi translations.

Connell’s archival research on the life and career of [[Niccolò Machiavelli]] resulted in a widely praised translation of ''[[The Prince]]'' (2005, rev. 2d ed. 2016)<ref>{{cite news|title=Machiavelli, Jersey Guy|url=https://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9D02E1DE143CF930A25750C0A9639C8B63|newspaper=The New York Times|date=March 13, 2005|author=Margo Nash}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|last=Baldassarri|first=Stefano U.|title=The Taming of the Secretary: Reflections on Some English Translations of Machiavelli's ''Il Principe''|journal=Journal of Italian Translation|year=2006|volume=1|issue=2|pages=235–252|url=http://userhome.brooklyn.cuny.edu/bonaffini/jit/}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|last=Guccione|first=Cristina|title=A Stylistic Analysis of the English Translations of Machiavelli's ''The Prince'': Mansfield, Skinner and Connell|journal=Storia e Politica|year=2009|volume=1|issue=3|pages=476–504|url=http://www.storiaepolitica.it/web/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=76&Itemid=92}}</ref> and several important essays.<ref>{{cite journal|last=Connell|first=William J.|title=La Lettera di Machiavelli a Vettori del 10 December 1513|journal=Archivio Storico Italiano|year=2013|volume=171|pages=665–723}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|last=Connell|first=William J.|title=Machiavelli on Growth as an End|journal=Historians and Ideologues: Studies in Early Modern Intellectual History in Honor of Donald R. Kelley|year=2001|pages=259–277|isbn=158046081X}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|last=Connell|first=William J.|title=The Republican Idea|journal=Renaissance Civic Humanism: Reappraisals and Reflections|year=2000|pages=14–29|doi=10.1017/CBO9780511558474.002|isbn=9780521780902|url=http://www.cambridge.org/aus/catalogue/catalogue.asp?isbn=9780521548076}}</ref> In 2013 Connell solved a longstanding philological problem, previously considered a puzzle "awaiting its Rosetta Stone,"<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Larivaille|first1=Paul|title=In attesa della Stele di Rosetta. Appunti sulla cronistoria di un rompicapo machiavelliano|journal=Filologia e Critica|date=2009|volume=34|pages=261–281}}</ref> by showing that Machiavelli completed ''The Prince'' in its final version in the spring of 1515.<ref>{{cite journal|last=Connell|first=William J.|title=Dating ''The Prince'': Beginnings and Endings|journal=Review of Politics|year=2013|volume=75|issue=4|pages=497–514|doi=10.1017/S0034670513000557|s2cid=143996047}}</ref> His essays were collected in the Italian volume ''Machiavelli nel Rinascimento italiano'' (2015). In 2016, on the occasion of the 500th anniversary of the publication of ''[[Utopia (More book)|Utopia]]'' by [[Thomas More]], he demonstrated connections between Machiavelli and the circle around More and [[Erasmus]].<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Connell|first1=William J.|title=Machiavelli's Utopia|journal=Times Literary Supplement|date=December 2, 2016|pages=15–17|url=https://www.the-tls.co.uk/articles/public/machiavellis-utopia/}}</ref>

Connell has contributed to the revitalization of Italian American studies. The ''Routledge History of Italian Americans'',<ref>{{cite book|last1=Connell|first1=William J.|last2=Pugliese|first2=Stanislao G.|title=The Routledge History of Italian Americans|date=2018|location=New York|isbn=9780415835831|url=https://www.routledge.com/The-Routledge-History-of-Italian-Americans/Connell-Pugliese/p/book/9780415835831}}</ref> which he co-edited in 2018 with Stanislao G. Pugliese, is the first scholarly history of the five centuries of the experience of Italians in America. The book, published both in English and Italian, received the 75th Anniversary Award of the US-Italy Fulbright Commission in 2023.<ref>{{cite web | url=http://www.fulbright.it/fulbright-75th-anniversary-award-william-connell-and-maddalena-tirabassi/ | title=Fulbright 75th Anniversary award: William Connell and Maddalena Tirabassi &#124; the U.S. – Italy Fulbright Commission | date=May 25, 2023 }}</ref>

In research on Italian explorers in the early [[Atlantic world]], including [[Christopher Columbus]], Connell explains that these navigators happened to be Italian because declining commercial prospects in the eastern Mediterranean (a consequence of Ottoman conquests) meant that Italian financiers were willing to invest in the first risky European expeditions into the Atlantic.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Connell |first1=William J. |title=Italians in the Early Atlantic World |journal=The Routledge History of Italian Americans |date=2018 |pages=17–41 |url=https://www.academia.edu/35132512}}</ref>

In recent years Connell's research has focused on the Renaissance revolution in historical thought and on connections between northern and southern Europe in the Early Modern period.<ref>{{cite journal|last=Connell|first=William J.|title=The Eternity of the World and Renaissance Historical Thought|journal=California Italian Studies|year=2011|volume=2|issue=1|pages=1–23|doi=10.5070/C321008977|url=http://escholarship.org/uc/item/3qx3j1nb|doi-access=free}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|last=Connell|first=William J.|title=Italian Renaissance Historical Narrative|journal=Oxford History of Historical Writing|year=2012|volume=3|pages=347–363|doi=10.1093/acprof:osobl/9780199219179.003.0018|isbn=978-0-19-921917-9|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=kF-4TdJv1nYC&dq=italian+renaissance+historical+narrative+connell&pg=PA347}}</ref>

In 2021 he organized the first academic conference of the Philip Roth Personal Library in the Newark Public Library. The conference featured the first public airing of the preserved audio tape of a famous symposium held at [[Yeshiva University]] in 1962 featuring [[Philip Roth]], [[Ralph Ellison]] and [[Pietro di Donato]]. The question they addressed was whether minority writers of fiction face a possible conflict of loyalties when in their work they develop characters who belong to their own minorities.<ref>{{cite web|title=Conflicts Depicting Race and Ethnicity in Fiction|date=October 18, 2021 |url=https://www.npl.org/conflicts-depicting-race-and-ethnicity-in-fiction-1962-and-2021-philip-roth-ralph-ellison-and-pietro-di-donato/}}</ref>

A manuscript he discovered in an antique shop in Amalfi in 2018 and published in 2023 is the only known copy of the first history of the Church written by a layman. In its conclusion,''Della Republica Ecclesiastica'', written by the important humanist [[Donato Giannotti]] in 1541, proposed reforming the Catholic Church as a republic, with the Pope becoming a ceremonial figure, all administration passing to the College of Cardinals, and bishops to be elected by the people and clergy of each diocese.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Giannotti |first1=Donato |title=Della Republica Ecclesiastica |date=2023 |publisher=Einaudi |location=Turin |isbn=9788806259976 |url=https://www.einaudi.it/catalogo-libri/antropologia-e-religione/religione/della-republica-ecclesiastica-donato-giannotti-9788806259976/}}</ref>

Connell has lectured at the Institute for Universal History of the [[Russian Academy of Sciences]] in Moscow, the [[Scuola Normale Superiore]] in Pisa, and the Fondazione Luigi Firpo in Turin. In 2011 he was an accreditation visitor at [[King Abdulaziz University]] in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. He serves on the editorial boards of 13 academic journals and monograph series, and he has written occasional pieces and reviews for the ''[[Times Literary Supplement]]'', ''[[Washington Post]]'', ''[[Wall Street Journal]]'', ''[[New York Daily News]]'', ''[[The American Scholar]]'', ''[[Clarín (Argentine newspaper)|Clarín]]'' (Argentina) and ''[[Timpul]]'' (Romania).

Connell is the son of William F. Connell, an artist, of Great Barrington, Massachusetts, and Marilyn Moore, an editor and actress, of New York City. He is married to Nikki Shepardson, a historian of Christianity, with whom he has two daughters. A first marriage ended in divorce.

Connell is a resident of [[Clinton, New Jersey]].<ref>Fusco, Mary Ann Castronovo. [https://www.nytimes.com/2000/10/08/nyregion/in-person-in-defense-of-columbus.html "In Person; In Defense Of Columbus"], ''[[The New York Times]]'', October 8, 2000. Accessed June 30, 2019. "Mr. Connell, who was raised by parents of Irish, German, and Welsh descent in the Bronx and Westchester, has so enthusiastically embraced Italian culture that he reads fairy tales in Italian to his 16-month-old daughter, Zoe, at the Clinton home he shares with his wife, Nikki Shepardson, who teaches history at Rider University."</ref>

* {{cite book| last = Connell| first = William J.| title = La città dei crucci: fazioni e clientele in uno stato repubblicano del '400| url = https://books.google.com/books?id=-AsMAQAAMAAJ| year = 2000| publisher = Nuova Toscana Editrice| location = Florence| isbn = 88-87263-10-8 }}

* {{cite book| last = Connell| first = William J. (co-ed.)|author2=Andrea Zorzi| title = Florentine Tuscany: Structures and Practices of Power| url = https://books.google.com/books?id=seDbXV9eu3kC| year = 2000| publisher = Cambridge University Press| location = Cambridge| isbn = 978-0-521-54800-7 }} [http://www.pacinieditore.it/lo-stato-territoriale-fiorentino-secoli-xiv-xv/ Italian edition (2001)].

* {{cite book| editor-last = Connell| editor-first = William J. | title = Society and Individual in Renaissance Florence| url = https://books.google.com/books?id=pxe96uVQtoEC| year = 2002| publisher = University of California Press| location = Berkeley and Los Angeles| isbn = 0-520-23254-2 }}

* {{cite book| last = Connell| first = William J.|author2=Giles Constable|author2-link=Giles Constable| title = Sacrilege and Redemption in Renaissance Florence: The Case of Antonio Rinaldeschi| url = https://crrs.ca/publications/es08/| year = 2005| publisher = Centre for Reformation and Renaissance Studies, Victoria U - U. of Toronto| location = Toronto| isbn = 978-0772720405 }} Revised second ed. (2008). [http://www.polistampa.com/scheda_recensione.php?id=4819 Italian edition (2006)]. [https://www.livelib.ru/book/1000973674/about-svyatotatstvo-i-vozdayanie-v-renessansnoj-florentsii-delo-antonio-rinaldeski-uilyam-dzh-konnel Russian edition (2010)]. [https://www.libris.ro/sacrilegiu-si-rascumparare-in-florenta-ine978-973-611-737-4.html Romanian edition (2011)]. [http://ketab-online.net/en/home/632-%D8%AA%D9%88%D9%87%DB%8C%D9%86-%D8%A8%D9%87-%D9%85%D9%82%D8%AF%D8%B3%D8%A7%D8%AA-%D9%88-%D8%B1%D8%B3%D8%AA%DA%AF%D8%A7%D8%B1%DB%8C.html Farsi edition (2018)]. [https://puv.uv.es/sacrilegio-y-redencion-en-la-florencia-del-renacimiento.html?___store=espanyol&___from_store=valencia Spanish edition (2019)].

* {{cite book| last=Connell|first=William J.|title=Come ho imparato l'italiano|year=2007|publisher=Biblioteca Comunale Foresiana|location=Portoferraio (Elba)|isbn=978-0-9817178-1-4}}

* {{cite book| last = Connell| first = William J. (co-ed.)|author2=Fred Gardaphé|author2-link=Fred Gardaphé| title = Anti-Italianism: Essays on a Prejudice| url = https://books.google.com/books?id=uLNbRwAACAAJ| year = 2010| publisher = Palgrave Macmillan| location = New York| isbn = 978-0-230-10830-1 }} [http://www.aracneeditrice.it/index.php/pubblicazione.html?item=9788825523973 Italian edition (2019)].

* {{cite book| last = Connell| first = William J. (historical commentary)| title = Giannozzo Manetti: Historia Pistoriensis| url = http://www.sismel.it/tidetails.asp?hdntiid=1275| year = 2011| publisher = SISMEL-Edizioni del Galluzzo| location = Florence| isbn = 978-88-8450-442-5 }} [https://www.ediorso.it/storia-di-pistoia-5758.html Italian translation, new edition (2014)].

* {{cite book| last1 = Connell|first1=William J.|title=Machiavelli nel Rinascimento italiano| year = 2015|publisher=FrancoAngeli|location=Milan|isbn=978-88-917-2503-5|url=http://www.francoangeli.it/Ricerca/Scheda_libro.aspx?ID=22902&Tipo=Libro&strRicercaTesto=&titolo=machiavelli+nel+rinascimento+italiano++}} Selected essays in Italian.

* {{cite book| last = Connell| first = William J. (co-ed.)|author2= Stanislao G. Pugliese| title=The Routledge History of Italian Americans|url=https://www.routledge.com/The-Routledge-History-of-Italian-Americans/Connell-Pugliese/p/book/9780415835831|year = 2018|publisher = Routledge| location = New York|isbn = 9780415835831}} [https://www.mondadorieducation.it/catalogo/storia-degli-italoamericani-0059797/ Italian edition (2019)].

* Connell, William J. (ed.) (2023). ''[https://www.einaudi.it/catalogo-libri/antropologia-e-religione/religione/della-republica-ecclesiastica-donato-giannotti-9788806259976/ Donato Giannotti: Della Republica Ecclesiastica]''. Turin: Einaudi. ISBN 9788806259976.

{{Reflist}}

* William J. Connell (May 1, 2020). [https://www.lavocedinewyork.com/en/people/2020/05/17/the-italian-americans-and-their-five-centuries-history-in-america-thats-it/ '''Interviewed on new history of Italian Americans''']. ''La Voce di New York''.

* William J. Connell (November 16, 2021). [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=prQJo78uZ5Q '''Newark Public Library Conference: Roth, Ellison, Di Donato'''].

{{Authority control}}

[[Category:21st-century American male writers]]

[[Category:Historians from New Jersey]]

[[Category:American male non-fiction writers]]