Professor Sophia Rosenfeld Honored for Her Common Sense

Sophia Rosenfeld, a professor of history at the University of Virginia, has won two awards for her book, Common Sense: A Political History.

She was awarded the Mark Lynton History Prize from the Columbia Journalism School and the Nieman Foundation at Harvard University. The prize is awarded to “a book-length work of history on any topic that best combines intellectual distinction with felicity of expression.”

She also won the 2012 Society for Historians of the Early American Republic Book Prize.

“The book is a history of how common sense and democracy have been implicated since the 18th century,” Professor Rosenfeld said. “I am interested in how we first became convinced that ordinary people’s perceptions can be used for making decisions in politics – that running a government is not necessarily much different from making decisions around a kitchen table.”

Professor Rosenfeld has taught at the University of Virginia since 1995. She is a graduate of Princeton University and holds a master’s degree and a Ph.D. from Harvard University