About me

– Susan E. Whyman
Historian, Author, and Scholar of Early English Culture

Susan Whyman is a historian, formerly of Princeton University, Princeton, New Jersey where she received both M.A. and Ph.D degrees in British History. Her B.A. is from Mount Holyoke College in South Hadley, Massachusetts and she earned an M.L.S. in Library and Information Science from Rutgers University, New Brunswick, New Jersey.

Whyman is interested in making history come alive by presenting the ‘voices’ of people in the past. She returned to the academic world after a career that encompassed the publishing, editing, and library/archive professions. These varied experiences inform and enhance all of her historical writing.

Whyman is the author of Sociability and Power: The Cultural Worlds of the Verneys; Walking the Streets of Eighteenth-Century London: John Gay’s Trivia, co-edited with Clare Brant; and The Pen and the People: English Letter Writers. Oxford University Press has published all of her books.

Whyman is a fellow of the Royal Historical Society in London and has been a visiting scholar at Wadham College, Oxford and the Huntington Library, San Marino, California. She serves on the executive committee of the British Society for Eighteenth Century Studies. Whyman lectures and publishes widely, both in the England and the U.S. on letters and British culture.

The Biography of

Susan E. Whyman

Dr. Susan E. Whyman is a social and cultural historian of British and colonial life in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. She received her M.A. and Ph.D. in British and Colonial American history from Princeton University in Princeton, New Jersey, her B.A. from Mount Holyoke College in South Hadley, Massachusetts, and an M.L.S. in Library and Information Science from Rutgers University in New Brunswick, New Jersey.

She is interested in bringing history to life by revealing voices of people in the past. Her work explores everyday life, literacy, social networks, and social mobility in early modern Britain. Whyman’s publications offer new perspectives on how ordinary people, often without formal education, shaped historical change. She returned to the academic world after a career that included publishing, editing, and work in archives—experiences that inform and enrich her historical writing.

A fellow of the Royal Historical Society, Whyman is the author of 4 acclaimed books published by Oxford University Press.

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best selling books published

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Articles and book chapters

Sociability and Power in the Late Stuart England: The Cultural Worlds of the Verneys 1660-1720 (1999), nominated for the 2000 LONGMAN HISTORY TODAY PRIZE

The Pen and the People: English Letter Writers 1660-1800 (2009), winner of the 2010 MODERN LANGUAGE ASSOCIATION PRIZE

Walking the Streets of Eighteenth-Century London: John Gay’s Trivia (1717) (2007), co-edited with Clare Brant (all published by Oxford University Press)

The Useful Knowledge of William Hutton: Culture and Industry in Eighteenth-Century Birmingham (2018).

From the 1990s, Whyman lived and worked in the US and the UK. Her life in Britain started as a visiting scholar at Wadham College, Oxford, where she wrote her thesis on the Verney letters. In both countries, Whyman built international networks and mentored UK and US undergraduates, mature students, women, and minorities. She was also active in the Institute for Historical Research, the British Society for Eightenth-Century Studies, the North American Conference on British Studies, the American Historical Association, and the American Library Association.

In conjunction with her academic work, she has become a well-known advocate for higher education and social justice in New Jersey, serving Brookdale Community College as a former Trustee, present Vice President of its Foundation, sponsor of the Whyman Center for Transformative Learning, and most importantly, founder of the Frank Whyman Scholarship program for immigrant students. At present, there are 16 Whyman scholars, who not only study, but work full time, help their families and volunteer in the community. Their graduations are Whyman’s favorite days of the year.