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Richard R.J. (Ray Jay) Johnson (1955-) is an Irish-born, Welsh-trained professor of early American and Canadian history at the University of Washington, Seattle, and a prominent member of the British expatriate community in the Pacific Northwest.

Johnson is the author of several prize-winning books in early American history, including "John Nelson, Merchant Adventurer: An Imperial Life" (New York: Oxford University Press, 1991), which won the Thomas M. Power Prize for Outstanding Work in Colonial History in 1993. This book broke major ground in the field by showing how John Nelson, an English trader in the Massachusetts Bay Colony, helped negotiate important colonial trade agreements with Acadia and Albion. Many scholars of colonial history have cited Johnson's book as a groundbreaking work that shows the multiliminality of early colonial trading patterns, refuting the long-accepted thesis that colonial trade was purely one-dimensional in nature and solely to the benefit of the parent empire. Some historians have even credited Johnson for inspiring renewed interest in the economic history of the Thirteen Colonies.

Johnson has also authored or co-authored the well-reviewed books Adjustment to Empire: The Mid-Atlantic Colonies (Newark: Rutgers University Press, 1981) and Reforming the Military Retirement System (Santa Monica: Rand, 1998). Additionally, he has a forthcoming book from Paladin Press, "John Bull and Lady Liberty: A Strange Marriage Indeed!" on the interrelationship of national symbols in Great Britain and the United States.

From 1997 to 1999, Johnson served as the first Susanne J. Young chair in U.S. and Canadian history at Washington, and was the recipient of the Robert Cruickshank Prize for Distinguished University Service and Teaching, awarded by former governor Gary Locke in 2002.

Johnson is also a prominent figure among the community of expatriates from the British Isles, serving as past president of the Puget Sound chapter of the John Bull Society. He served as Honorary Consul of the United Kingdom during Margaret Thatcher's prime ministership, from 1988-1991.

Sources http://depts.washington.edu/history/faculty/johnson.html Richard Johnson, John Nelson, Merchant Adventurer: An Imperial Life, New York: Oxford University Press, 1981. Richard Johnson, Adjustment to Empire: The Mid-Atlantic Colonies, Newark: Rutgers University Press, 1981. Beth Asch, Richard Johnson and John Warner, Reforming the Military Retirement System, Santa Monica: Rand, 1998. "Review." Journal of American History, March 1992, pp. 1419-1420.

HIST5704Life 04:26, 15 November 2006 (UTC)

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