The AHA has a small but dynamic staff. And when one of our own receives a special honor from outside the Association, we like to blow our horn a little.
One special staff member who has received a recent honor is Dr. Arnold Price. Since 1980, Dr. Price has served as the in-house historian for the AHA’s bibliographical operations, charged, in particular, with enhancing the scope of the Writings on American History by developing references to articles found outside the mostly mainstream journals received by the editorial office. Thus, he spends much of his time m pursuit of these “fugitives” in the massive collections of the Library of Congress.
He also backstops the processing of both Recently Published Articles, a comprehensive bibliography covering all periods of historical inquiry, and the above-mentioned Writings on American History by providing substantive advice and review to the editorial staff.
Before coming to the AHA, Dr. Price’s past was distinguished and varied. In 1933 he emigrated to the United States from Germany, earning a PhD from the University of Michigan in 1942. During World War II, he served with the Office of Strategic Services and later, with the State Department. For nineteen years, he worked at the Library of Congress as an area specialist on Central Europe, before joining the AHA.
Independent of AHA staff functions, Arnold Price has, since 1961, served as the section editor for periodical literature on Germany, Austria, and Switzerland, first for the American Historical Review and now for Recently Published Articles.
The author of numerous articles and a contributor to several books, Arnold Price has served as president of the Association for the Bibliography of History and secretary of the Swiss American Historical Society.
At a recognition ceremony held in conjunction with the December 27-30 American Historical Association Annual Meeting in New York City, Dr. Price was one of five veteran historians honored on the 30th by ABC-CLIO, an international reference book publisher.
The honorees were recipients of the prestigious Award of Merit, only twelve of which have been conferred in the publisher’s thirty years of existence. Our own recipient, Dr. Price, has served ABC-CLIO informally for many years as an advisor and consultant on its history serials, receiving in return only satisfaction. He played a major role in the success of the publisher’s Historical Periodicals Directory. In praise, ABC-CLIO president Ronald J. Boehm said of Dr. Price, “You have enriched us personally and intellectually . . . the history profession owes you a debt of gratitude.” We at the AHA second that statement!
