Charles Sellers

Charles G. Sellers is Professor Emeritus of History at the University of California, Berkeley and is the author of James K. Polk vol 1: Jacksonian, 1795-1843, James K. Polk vol 2: Continentalist, 1843-1846 (which won the Bancroft Prize), and The Market Revolution: Jacksonian America, 1815-1846. Sellers earned a Bachelor of Arts from Harvard University in 1945, where he lived in Grays Hall during his freshman year. His graduation was delayed until 1947 by service in the United States Army. He then received his Doctor of Philosophy from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1950. In 1950-1951, Sellers was an assistant professor in the history department of the University of Maryland, followed in 1951-1958 by Princeton University. In 1958 he moved to the University of California, Berkeley, getting promoted to full professor. In 1960-1961 he was honored by the Center for Advanced Studies in the Behavioral Sciences at Stanford University. In 1963 he won a Guggenheim Fellowship. In 1964 he was a visiting professor at El Colegio de Mexico. In 1970-1971 he was the Harold Vyvyan Harmsworth Professor of American History at Oxford University. Sellers was arrested in the Jackson, Mississippi airport on 21 July 1961, as a part of the Freedom Rides. He is retired and still lives in Berkeley.