Writings

Peer-Reviewed Journal Articles
“Revolutionary Cumberland: A Note on a Historical Controversy,” Rhode Island History, Volume 51, Number 4, November 1993, 129-134.

In reality, this indifference was typical of rural, agricultural communities like Cumberland, for British policy during these years impacted them less directly than it impacted commercial and maritime centers like Newport and Providence. In all likelihood the Stamp Act seemed a less pressing matter to farmers in northern Rhode Island than it did to merchants and attorneys in Newport. As long as problems with Great Britain seemed remote, they received little attention in the countryside.

Magazine Articles
“On Teaching: PSAT and AP Success.” Organization of American Historians Magazine of History, Spring 2001, 55-56.

At first glance, the data seem to suggest that students who earn PSAT scores below the seventieth percentile have difficulty exceeding a score of 3 on the AP exam. However, when the numbers are reexamined and deviations in PSAT scores are considered, a different conclusion is reached. When students who scored at or below the sixtieth percentile are examined separately, their collective performance markedly improves.

Newsletter Articles
“iPads in Libraries: Not an Easy Decision.” Online: The Newsletter of the New Hampshire School Library Media Association, Winter/Spring 2011, 6.

The Tech Guy Leo Laporte talks about iPads as replacements for entertainment tools, but not computers. I think he’s right. My iPad does a lot, but it’s a far cry from my laptop. That means that the iPad is not a computer but is much more than an eBook reader. And this, in my view, makes it an awkward fit for a library.

“In Defense of Cushing.” Online: The Newsletter of the New Hampshire School Library Media Association, Winter/Spring 2010, 6.

The transformation of my small library doesn’t compare, of course, to that of Cushing Academy. It nonetheless is similar, I think, because it’s the result of believing that libraries are meant to connect people with information and that information takes many forms.

Reviews in Library Journal, Choice Magazine, and The Magazine of History

• American Slave Narratives [Internet Resource]
• Terms of Labor: Slavery, Serfdom, and Free Labor, ed. by Stanley L. Engerman. Stanford, 1999.
• Oldfield, J.R. Popular Politics and British Anti-Slavery: the Mobilization of Public Opinion Against the Slave Trade, 1787-1807 . Manchester 1995 St. Martins.
• Pagden, Anthony. Lords of All the World: Ideologies of Empire in Spain, Britain and France, c.1500-c.1800. Yale, 1995.
• Calloway, Colin G. The American Revolution in Indian Country: Crisis and Diversity in Native American Communities. Cambridge, 1995.
• Merwick, Donna. Death of a Notary: Conquest and Change in Colonial New York. Cornell, 1999.
• Behr, Edward. Prohibition: Thirteen Years that Changed America. Little Brown 1996.
• Hodges, Grahan Russell. Slavery and Freedom in the Rural North: African Americans in Monmouth County, New Jersey, 1665-1865. Madison House 1997.
• Langley, Lester D. The Americas in the Age of Revolution, 1750-1850. Yale University 1996.
• History Safari. Educational Insights. Domingues Hills, CA. 1995.