Flamm, Michael W. 1964–

PERSONAL:

Born April 4, 1964; married Jennifer McNally; children: Austin, Alexandra. Education: Harvard University, B.A. (magna cum laude), 1986; Columbia University, M.A., 1992, M.Phil., 1993, Ph.D., 1998. Hobbies and other interests: Tennis, skiing, travel, jazz, theater, and films of all kinds, reading mystery novels and historical fiction.

ADDRESSES:

Home—Columbus, OH. Office—Department of History, Ohio Wesleyan University, Delaware, OH 43015. E-mail—mwflamm@owu.edu.

CAREER:

Rumson-Fair Haven High School, Rumson, NJ, history teacher, 1986-89; Scarsdale High School, Scarsdale, NY, history teacher, 1989-91; Columbia University, New York, NY, teaching assistant, 1992-96; Ohio Wesleyan University, Delaware, department of history, associate professor then professor, 1998—. Founding member of the modern U.S. history workshop at Ohio State University.

MEMBER:

American Historical Association, Organization of American Historians, Social Science History Association.

AWARDS, HONORS:

Richard Hofstadter Fellowship, Columbia University, 1991-97; Walter Metzger Prize, Columbia University, 1995; Moody Research Grants, Lyndon Baines Johnson Foundation, 1995, 2004; Kennedy Research Grant, John F. Kennedy Library Foundation, 1995; Mellon Postdoctoral Research Scholar, Columbia University, 1997-98; Fulbright Senior Specialist, Fulbright Scholars Program, 2006.

WRITINGS:

Law and Order: Street Crime, Civil Unrest, and the Crisis of Liberalism in the 1960s, Columbia University Press (New York, NY), 2005.

(With David Steigerwald) Debating the 1960s: Liberal, Conservative, and Radical Perspectives, Rowman & Littlefield (Lanham, MD), 2008.

Contributor to various journals, including AHA Perspectives on History, Reviews in American History, and the Journal of Policy History; contributor of chapters to various books.

SIDELIGHTS:

Michael W. Flamm graduated magna cum laude from Harvard University in 1986, having earned his undergraduate degree in history. He went on to complete his education at Columbia University, garnering an M.A., an M.Phil. and a Ph.D. in history, as well. Over the course of his academic career, he was awarded a number of prestigious grants and scholarships, including a Kennedy Research Grant. Flamm taught several years of high school-level history prior to moving on to teach at the university level. He joined the faculty of the Ohio Wesleyan University in 1998, where he became an associate professor in the history department. In addition to his academic duties, Flamm is a frequent contributor to various academic journals, including AHA Perspectives on History, Reviews in American History, and the Journal of Policy History. He has also contributed chapters to a number of volumes, as well as writing or cowriting several books of his own.

In Law and Order: Street Crime, Civil Unrest, and the Crisis of Liberalism in the 1960s, which was published in 2005, Flamm attempts to unite two disparate trends in writing regarding the role of the political right in the 1960s, addressing the period both from the standpoint of a historian interested in the turbulence of the times and of a social scientist interested in how the media was utilized in the ascension of the right to political power in the United States. In so doing, he focuses on the theme of law and order during the mid-1960s, and how the more liberal political agendas from earlier in the decade were slowly replaced by the right-leaning politicians who used that theme for their rationalizations. The growth of civil unrest during the 1960s, and the subsequent increased military presence necessary to keep ant-war movements contained, eventually made themselves into the major political issues of the period, overriding even the Vietnam War, which was far less immediate and present when compared to riots in the streets of U.S. cities. These grew into questions regarding juvenile delinquency, welfare, the rights of the states versus federal mandates, and many other issues. John C. McWilliams, in a review for the Historian, noted that "unfortunately Flamm's analysis and interpretation is confined predominantly to the introduction and epilogue." He wrote: "An academic audience with a particular interest in the era's social issues will likely find this book more useful than the general reader." Edward P. Morgan, writing for the Political Science Quarterly, found the result to be "a fascinating and highly readable account of how competing perspectives were argued and elections were influenced in this important public policy area."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

American Historical Review, October, 2007, Michael R. Belknap, review of Law and Order: Street Crime, Civil Unrest, and the Crisis of Liberalism in the 1960s, p. 1218.

Choice: Current Reviews for Academic Libraries, March, 2006, T.H. Koenig, review of Law and Order, p. 1288.

Historian, winter, 2006, John C. McWilliams, review of Law and Order.

Journal of American Studies, December, 2006, James Miller, review of Law and Order, p. 660.

Political Science Quarterly, spring, 2006, Edward P. Morgan, review of Law and Order.

Reference & Research Book News, November, 2007, review of Debating the 1960s: Liberal, Conservative, and Radical Perspectives.

ONLINE

H-Net: Humanities and Social Sciences Online,http://www.h-net.org/ (August, 2005), Timothy N. Thurber, review of Law and Order.

PopMatters,http://www.popmatters.com/ (January 25, 2006), Michael Sandlin, review of Law and Order.