Brown, David S. 1966-

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Brown, David S. 1966-

PERSONAL:

Born September 29, 1966, in Troy, OH. Education: Wright State University, B.A., 1990; University of Akron, M.A., 1992; University of Toledo, Ph.D., 1995.

ADDRESSES:

Home—Elizabethtown, PA. Office—Department of History, Elizabethtown College, Wenger Center, Rm. 379A, 1 Alpha Dr., Elizabethtown, PA 17022-2298. E-mail—brownds@etown.edu.

CAREER:

Elizabethtown College, Elizabethtown, PA, associate professor of history, 1997—.

WRITINGS:

NONFICTION

Thomas Jefferson: A Biographical Companion, ABC-Clio (Santa Barbara, CA), 1998.

Richard Hofstadter: An Intellectual Biography, University of Chicago Press (Chicago, IL), 2006.

SIDELIGHTS:

David S. Brown is a historian who has won critical acclaim for his biographies Thomas Jefferson: A Biographical Companion and Richard Hofstadter: An Intellectual Biography. In the former, Brown gives insights and information on the life of the third president of the United States. In Richard Hofstadter, Brown recounts the life story of Hofs- tadter, a prominent American author and historian whose particular focus was on conservatism, though he was not himself a conservative. In doing so, Brown also examines the rise and fall of liberalism.

Thomas Jefferson: A Biographical Companion is an encyclopedic book that contains about two hundred entries, most of them about a page in length, on people, events, and locations that had some significance in Jefferson's life. They describe the books and authors he liked to read, his family, other members of the fledgling government of the United States, philosophies that influenced him, and historical events that took place in his lifetime. There are also primary sources, including some of Jefferson's personal correspondence, his first inaugural address, and his draft of the Declaration of Independence, showing the parts that were later stricken out by the Congress before the document was approved. There is a timeline of personal and political milestones in Jefferson's life, and a lengthy bibliography. Reviewing the book for Library Journal, Thomas J. Schaeper remarked that while it was unlikely that those with in-depth knowledge of Jefferson would glean much new information from the entries, general readers and less-advanced students would "find this book to be a valuable, reliable reference tool." A Booklist reviewer also felt that those new to the subject of Jefferson would quickly learn a lot from Brown's book, concluding: "Its attractive format and easy readability will make this volume useful to anyone who wants to know more about Thomas Jefferson and the republican citizenry he endorsed."

Richard Hofstadter was one of the most influential American intellectuals of his era. His works, which are widely read, combined history, social criticism, and cultural analysis. One of his best-known books, The American Political Tradition and the Men Who Made It, first published in the mid-twentieth century, is still required reading in many high-school and college courses. Referring to Hofstadter in a National Review article, William J. Gribbin wrote: "His extraordinary intellectual influence, both in his own time and today, calls for a biography as meticulous and analytical as this volume by David S. Brown." Though Hofstadter's area of specialty was conservative politics, he was not himself a conservative. He was briefly a member of the Communist party and adhered to various forms of liberalism throughout the decades. The 1964 candidacy of conservative presidential candidate Barry Goldwater prompted him to remark that it was a sign the country was "visibly sick," and he once jokingly said that conservatives should be confined to mental institutions. Brown's biography does not shy way from Hofstadter's weaknesses, paying particular attention to his dislike of the basic work of finding and analyzing primary historical sources. His disdain for such work drew criticism from the academic community and "distorted his own writing," according to Gribbin.

Despite his strong criticism of political conservatives, Hofstadter actually took them much more seriously than many did during that time, and he could be said to have predicted the rise to power of the right wing that led to the presidencies of Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush and his son George W. Bush. He also was quite aware of the so-called horseshoe effect, or the fact that far-right and far-left politics have more in common than one might expect. Commonweal contributor Kevin Mattson found that Brown's book "deftly situates its subject squarely at the center of the story of twentieth-century American liberalism. Sometimes, when Brown draws his own observations, he seems less sure of himself. But he has provided insight not merely into one man's life, but into his era—a time when liberalism seemed intelligent enough to recognize both its own ethical strengths and its ultimate limits. That's a fine accomplishment for a young historian."