Gregory Nobles is professor emeritus in the School of History and Sociology at Georgia Tech in Atlanta, Georgia, where he first started teaching in 1983. Prior to that he taught at Virginia Tech. Dr. Nobles’s accomplishments are too many to list here, but he has received numerous research grants and fellowships, including two Fulbright professorships and several National Endowment for the Humanities and Mellon Foundation awards. In fact, he just finished a term as Mellon Distinguished Scholar in Residence at the American Antiquarian Society, where he was elected to membership in 1995. Dr. Nobles has been on the advisory council of SHEAR (Society for Historians of the Early American Republic) and has published and lectured widely on everything from early and revolutionary American politics to the American frontier to John James Audubon. His most recent book, John James Audubon: The Nature of the American Woodsman, was just published by University of Pennsylvania Press. His current work is tentatively titled “Betsey Stockton’s Mission: From Slavery to Freedom, From Princeton to the Pacific.”
In this interview, Dr. Nobles talks about this newest project, tells us a bit about the history of social history, and discusses how his work as a historian has affected his personal life.