I’m a lifelong Western Massachusetts native with undergrad work in American Studies at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst and graduate studies in the teaching of history at Westfield State University. My primary areas of focus are the period of social change and upheaval in the United States from the mid-19th century through the early 20th, with special interests in Shays’ Rebellion, the American Civil War, and the reform movements of the Progressive Era. In addition, I have a long and abiding love of 19th century “base ball” and in particular how the game spread and became standardized throughout the Civil War era.
My approach to history is bottom-up, preferring to focus on the experiences of the common person over the “Great Person” theory. An analogy I like to use is that history is like a mosaic. The greater image reflects the “Great Person”, but like all mosaics, it is made up of tiny little pebbles. Without even a single pebble, the image is incomplete. Each of those pebbles reflects an individual life of a common person who lived a life that informed and impacted every life around it, and together, they define the whole mosaic.
I would look to highlight the pebbles, and in doing so, inform the understanding of the grand mosaic in context.