---
title: Historian Alum Awarded MacArthur “Genius” Grant
date: 2026-09-29T12:21:00-04:00
author: University of Maryland
canonical_url: "https://today.umd.edu/historian-alum-awarded-macarthur-genius-grant"
section: Articles
---
# Historian Alum Awarded MacArthur “Genius” Grant

*September 29, 2026* — by [Maryland Today Staff](/author/maryland-today-staff)


> Scholar of the 19th century’s agricultural and political economy will receive $800K.

*Ron 2026 hi res download 2 1920x1080 — Ariel Ron '00, a historian who researches, writes and teaches about U.S. politics and economics from the 1800s to the present, will receive an $800,000 award as a new MacArthur fellow. (Photo courtesy of the MacArthur Foundation)*

<span>A University of Maryland alumnus who is upending long-held ideas about the role of Northern agriculture in the runup to the Civil War and beyond was announced Tuesday as one of 20 winners of the </span>[<span>2026 John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation Fellowship</span>](https://www.macfound.org/programs/awards/fellows/?utm_medium=email&utm_source=enews&utm_campaign=fellows-2026)<span>, known as the “genius” grant.</span>

<span>Historian Ariel Ron ’00 will receive a no-strings-attached stipend of $800,000 over five years in recognition of his exceptional creativity and potential. The foundation specifically called out his ongoing work on “largely overlooked aspects of nineteenth-century America … and uncovering the historical roots of the U.S. government taking an active role in shaping economic and technological development.”</span>

<span>Ron, the Glenn M. Linden Associate Professor of the U.S. Civil War Era at Southern Methodist University, is working on a book about how hay for horses—which were central to farming and transportation—was as important to the 19th century American economy as cotton. </span>

<span>Other honorees include other historians, scientists, visual and performing artists, social scientists and individuals in other fields. All were nominated anonymously by leaders in their respective fields. </span>

<span>Ron is the fourth graduate of the </span>[<span>College of Arts and Humanities</span>](https://arhu.umd.edu/)<span> to be recognized with this honor in the past five years and is among at least 16 UMD graduates to receive it since the program’s inception in 1981.</span>

<span>On his website, he writes that he was born in Tel Aviv, grew up there and in the Washington, D.C., area, and lived several years in Hiroshima and Tokyo, “all of which gives me both an insider and an outsider view of American history. My research usually starts with some basic fact that seems boring but important. I then try to work out the implications of taking that thing seriously.”</span>

<span>As a UMD undergraduate, he was inducted into Phi Beta Kappa and won an award for best honors </span>[<span>history</span>](https://history.umd.edu/)<span> thesis. Ron earned a doctorate from the University of California, Berkeley and conducted research at the University of Pennsylvania and Yale University before joining SMU’s Department of History in 2016. There he is also director of the Clements Center for Southwest Studies.</span>

<span>In Ron’s 2020 book “</span>[<span>Grassroots Leviathan: Northern Agricultural Reform in the Slaveholding Republic</span>](https://www.press.jhu.edu/books/title/12239/grassroots-leviathan)<span>” (Johns Hopkins University Press), he argued that “despite the abiding myth that the Civil War pitted an industrial North against an agrarian South, the truth is that agriculture continued to dominate the economic, social and cultural lives of the majority of Americans well into the late nineteenth century.” It went on to win best book awards from the Agricultural History Society and the Center for Civil War Research.</span>

<span>His 2023 essay, “</span>[<span>When Hay Was King: Energy History and Economic Nationalism in the Nineteenth-Century United States</span>](https://academic.oup.com/ahr/article/128/1/177/7098054)<span>,” contended that while cotton exports were important to the American economy, hay was vital to fueling the economy as fodder for the millions of horses used for work and transportation. Ron is building on this research for his book on the role of horses in the industrial energy system.</span>

<span>Ron’s other scholarly work has been published in the </span>*History of Political Economy*<span>, </span>*Agricultural History* <span>and the </span>*Journal of American History*<span>, among other journals. </span>


**Sidebar note:**

Other Terps who have received a MacArthur Fellowship:

- [2024: Jason Reynolds ’05 (English)](https://today.umd.edu/umd-grad-jason-reynolds-awarded-macarthur-genius-grant)
- [2022: Tomeka Reid ’00 (music)](https://today.umd.edu/school-of-music-alum-wins-coveted-macarthur-genius-grant)
- [2021: Reginald Dwayne Betts ’09 (English)](https://today.umd.edu/alum-receives-macarthur-genius-grant)
- [2020: N.K. Jemisin M.Ed. ’97 (education)](https://today.umd.edu/alum-known-novels-distant-future-earns-macarthur-genius-grant-389b7d40-5197-4334-9932-0e43175d68bf)
- [2015: Beth Stevens Ph.D. ’03 (biological sciences)](https://today.umd.edu/brain-food-53f63f06-b1bb-48fb-a16d-678f010add25)
- 2014: Pamela O. Long ’65, Ph.D. ’79 (history)
- 2013: Ana Maria Rey Ph.D. ’04 (physics)
- 2010: David Simon ’83 (general studies)
- 2006: Kenneth C. Catania ’89 (zoology)
- 2004: Naomi E. Leonard M.S. ’91, Ph.D. ’94 (electrical engineering)
- 2002: Liz A. Lerman ’70 (dance)
- 2002: Karen S. Hesse ’74 (English)
- 1989: Ellendea Proffer Teasley ’66 (Russian)
- 1986: Lester R. Brown M.S. ’59 (agricultural economics)





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**Units:** [College of Arts and Humanities](https://today.umd.edu/topic/college-arts-and-humanities)