About

I was born in the 1960s in a suburban New Jersey town that styles itself as “a residential community with industrial strength.” It also had its very own superfund site. The community was predominantly Irish/Italian/Catholic/ working class. My family was none of the above so geekdom was inevitable. I escaped to my state university where I elected not to pursue one of the four noble professions: engineering, law, medicine, and engineering. Instead, I got a B.A. in anthropology. I also participated in an interdisciplinary honors program which I am only beginning to appreciate after more than a decade of university-level teaching. I did some traveling (Europe, West Africa, and Southeast Asia, spending the better part of a year in Thailand). Grad school followed, as did two years’ residence in Brazil, and a history Ph.D. in 1994.

I was inspired to start this blog after a truly memorable semester of teaching in fall 2006. Ideas born in the classroom merited more than an ephemeral 75 minutes’ existence. I see this blog as a place for further debate and a venue to post occasional observations about history, knowledge and life.