Donald A. Yerxa


Donald A. Yerxa is an author, editor and historian.

Biography

Yerxa received his bachelor's degree in history from the Eastern Nazarene College in 1972. He received a master's degree and Ph.D. from the University of Maine on a university fellowship. A noted historian, Yerxa is a director of The Historical Society at Boston University and a senior editor of Historically Speaking, published by the Johns Hopkins University Press for BU.
He is the former chair of the James R. Cameron Center for History, Law, & Government at his alma mater, the Eastern Nazarene College, where he taught from 1977 to 2009, and launched the history department's distinguished lecture series in the 1990s. He was a member of the executive board for the Conference on Faith and History from 2002 to 2006, currently serves on the editorial board of the online journal New Global Studies, and is editing a multi-volume series, Historians in Conversation, for the University of South Carolina Press.
Yerxa guest edits for publications, such as the European Review, for which he guest edited a forum on the Scientific Revolution, and is a contributing editor for Christianity Today's Books and Culture magazine. He is a frequent contributor to the Research News & Opportunities in Science and Theology publication for the John Templeton Foundation and has been a multiple grant recipient. His most recent grant organized a conference on "British Abolitionism, Moral Progress, and Big Questions in History."
Yerxa is currently the editor of Fides et Historia.

Published works

Yerxa has written encyclopedia entries for four encyclopedias on United States history and the history of science, and is the author of three books, two on naval history: Admirals and Empire, and The Burning of Falmouth, and Species of Origins: America’s Search for a Creation Story with coauthor Karl Giberson. Admirals was described as "solidly researched, clearly and economically written, and intelligently conceived... a useful synthesis filling a gap in the existing literature," Species of Origins was widely reviewed as a uniquely even-handed and concise contribution to the scholarship on the creation–evolution controversy in the United States.
Galileo scholar William Shea lauded the account as the "best-written and most perceptive of the current accounts available," while author Edward Larson described it as the "next best thing for those of us not enrolled in their courses." Professor of science Michael Ruse described it as “a simply invaluable primer on the subject that should be made compulsory reading for all who have ever thought on science-and-religion... I can think of no better place to start into the debate about origins — creationism or evolution — than with this book.” It has been the subject of and catalyst for various discussions, conferences, and other books.