Dr. John Ferling
Outstanding Retired Faculty Award
Dr. John Ferling taught at the University of West Georgia for 33 years. He and his wife Carol moved from Philadelphia to Carrollton in 1971 and Ferling taught in the History Department until his retirement in 2004. Carol, who earned an M.Ed. in Student Services from UWG, worked for 17 years in the Office of Finance Aid. She was the Assistant Director at the time of her retirement in 1992.
Ferling taught courses in early American history and U.S. military history, but he was also drawn to graduate school and a college teaching career by a desire to write history. He published his first book – The Loyalist Mind – six years after he joined the UWG faculty. Since then, he has written eight other books and edited two more. He has also published numerous articles, some in scholarly journals and many in popular magazines, such as The Smithsonian and American History.
A Leap in the Dark: The Struggle to Create the American Republic (2003) received the Fraunces Tavern Award, given annually by the New York City chapter of the Sons of the American Revolution for the best book of the year on the American Revolution.
He has written biographies of George Washington and John Adams, two books on early American warfare, and a history of the election of 1800. His most recent book, published this year, is Almost a Miracle: The American Victory in the War of Independence.
He has appeared in television documentaries on PBS, the History Channel, and the Learning Channel. Those programs addressed topics including American slavery, the Founding Fathers, the American Revolution and John and Abigail Adams.
Ferling and his wife still reside in Carrollton. He enjoys collecting sports memorabilia and she collects early American pattern glass. Both enjoy gardening and their cats.