History is dull and nothing but names, places and events to be memorized. Or at least that is what most of you learn in high school. Few people, though, say that Al Capone was dull and he is part of history. Joan of Arc is part of history. Martin Luther and Martin Luther King are parts of history. Pickett's Charge at Gettysburg, the Black Death, the Rise of Islam, the impact of the Birth Control Pill, and Jesus of Nazareth are all part of history too. There may be no such thing as dull history, only dull historians. The intent of the historians at Alvernia is not to drill names and dates into our students, but to allow students to see the clash and flow of events, the good as well as the bad, the glories as well as the miseries. We also wish to answer questions you may not even know you have. What are the roots of an Usama Bin Ladin? How did Americans get so hooked on pills and medicines? Why do we expect concerts to have special effects galore?

We don’t expect every person to become a history buff, but we do expect that, in your years with us, you will find a course that interests you.

Professional Education:

Ph.D.: American History, 1989, The Pennsylvania State University
Minor Field: Late Antiquity and Medieval

Master of Arts: American History, 1984, The Pennsylvania State University
Specialization: Economic History

Master of Public Administration, 1976,The Pennsylvania State University
Specialization: Systems Theory

Bachelor of Arts: American History, 1974, University of Wyoming

Research Interests:

American Presidents
Constitutional History
Appalachian History
Home Front—World War II
Popular Culture

Current Projects:

The (Dys)Functional Presidency
The Dynamics of Constitution Making
Riots and Conflict in Early Appalachia
Glenn Miller
Evaluating Presidents Carter, Reagan, G.H.W. Bush, Clinton and G.W. Bush

(Dr. Blessing, center, on a panel discussing "The American Presidency in a Post 9/11-Post Iraq War World: Historical, Constitutional, and Institutional Perspectives," for the International Leadership Association, Guadalaraja, Mexico.)

Publications: Articles and Book

"The Presidential Performance Study: A Progress Report," Journal of American History, September, 1983 (co-authored with Robert K. Murray)

Greatness in the White House: Historians Rate the Presidents, Washington through [Carter (first edition)] [Reagan (second edition)] (Penn State Press: 1988, 1994) (co-authored with Robert K. Murray)

"Robert W. Fogel and the Illusion of Empiricism," Pennsylvania Journal of Economics (Fall, 1991).

"Three Swings and Ten Dynasties: The Temporal-Historical Aspects of
Presidential Performance," The Presidential Studies Quarterly, (July, 1995)

"The American Revolution and the Upper Juniata Valley: The Reconfirmation of Localism," (chapter), The Revolution in the Back Country of Pennsylvania. Eds. John Frantz and William Pencak (Penn State Press: 1998)

"Top Down: A General Overview of Present Research on Ronald Reagan=s Doctrinal Presidency," (chapter), Reassessing the Reagan Presidency. Ed. Richard S. Conley (University Press of America: 2003)

"Presidents and Significance: Partisanship as a Source of Perceived Greatness." White House Studies Quarterly (Summer, 2003)

"The Lewistown Riots, 1791-1793 A Micro-analytic Approach." Pennsylvania History (Forthcoming, Probable Date of Publication, September, 2004)

Encyclopedia Article and Reviews

"Scholarly Ratings of the Presidents." Encyclopedia of the American Presidency. Leonard Levy and Louis Fisher, Editors. New York: Simon and Shuster, 1994.

Review of The White House: The First Two Hundred Years, The Journal of American History (March, 1995):1694-1695.

Review of David K. Nichols. The Myth of the Modern Presidency, for H-Pol@ h-net.msu.edu (September, 1998).

Review of Lynn Hudson Parsons. John Quincy Adams for H-SHEAR@h-net.msu.edu (January, 1999)..

Review of Timothy Walch, ed. Uncommon Americans: The Lives and Legacies of Herbert and Lou Henry Hoover for Presidential Studies Quarterly (forthcoming, expected date of publication, Winter, 2004)

Conferences/Presentations

"The Epistemology of the 1920s Businessman: The Twain Diverges." Annual Meeting of the Pennsylvania Historical Association, Philadelphia, PA, 1983.

"New Roles for Volunteer Groups in Local History," Daughters of the American Colonists Symposium on Local History, Harrisburg, PA, 1984.

"The Systems of an Appalachian Region--Pennsylvania's Juniata Valley, 1754-1985." 1989 Southern Cultural Association Conference, April, 1989."

"The American Thirty Years' War: The Indian Wars in the Humid East." The 1989 Eastern Historical Geographer's Association Conference, October, 1989."

"The Deurbanization of an Appalachian Society." Twenty-Third Annual Duquesne University History Forum, October, 1989.

" New Perspectives on Mental Sets." Twenty-Fourth Annual Duquesne History Forum, October, 1990.

"Medieval Families and Modern 'Dysfunctional Families: Parallels to be Considered." Center for Ancient and Early Studies 1990 Conference, October, 1990.

"Economic Legacy of Ronald Reagan," New York State Economic Association, October, 1990.

"The Presidential Study and the Ranking of Ronald Reagan," Northeast Political Science Association, November, 1990.

"Ronald Reagan and History," Organization of American Historians, April 13, 1991.

"The Use of the Osgood Semantic Differential Scale to Measure Shifts in Public Opinion During the Persian Gulf War," Pennsylvania Sociological Association Conference, October, 1991.

"A Historical Perspective on Attitude Change During the Persian Gulf War." Presented at the American Psychological Association Annual Meeting, August, 1992.

"A Matrix of Greatness: A Comparison of American Presidents and Medieval Rulers Selected by Medievalists." New York Society of European Historians Annual Meeting: September, 1992.

"Student Attitude Shifts During the Gulf War," Social Science History Association, October, 1993.

"The Impact of the War of 1812 on Public Mentalités" Duquesne History Forum, October, 1993.

"The American Revolution in the Upper Juniata Valley of Pennsylvania," Pennsylvania Historical Association, October, 1996.

"The Filtered Presidency," The Pennsylvania Political Science Association, April, 1999.

"Presidents and Significance: Partisanship as a Source of Perceived Greatness." Hofstra Conference on Presidential Ratings, October 2000.

"Physical Boundaries and the Maintenance of Political Enmity: Mifflin and Juniata Counties Pennsylvania, 1791-1920." Pennsylvania Geographic Society, Wilkes-Barre, PA, October, 2000.

"The Lewistown Riots,"Pennsylvania Historical Association, October, 2001.

"Room to Talk: A Comparison of Context in Medieval and U.S. Political Leadership," International Leadership Association Conference, Miami, FL, November 2001.

"Ronald Reagan: Popularity and Personality," Conference on the Reagan Presidency, March, 2002. (University of California at Santa Barbara)

AStrangers in a Disordered Land: The West Moves East,"Society of Historians of the Early American Republic, 2003 Meeting, Columbus, Ohio, July, 2003.

"The West Flows East: the Dominance of "the West" in Pennsylvania's 1789-1790 Constitutional Convention," Pennsylvania Historical Association, 2003 meeting, Harrisburg, PA., October, 2003.

"Glenn Miller at 100: Towards a Reassessment of his Place in Popular Culture," Northeast Popular Culture Association, 2003 meeting, Worcester, MA, November, 2003.

"A Contrarian View of Leaders and Communication: Restricting Communication as a Leadership Tool," International Leadership Association, 2003 Meeting, Guadalajara, Mexico, November, 2003.

Served as a discussant of a three-person panel:"The American Presidency in a Post 9/11-Post Iraq War World: Historical, Constitutional, and Institutional Perspectives," The International Leadership Association, 2003 Meeting, November, 2003, Guadalajara, Mexico

"Don't Hate Us Because We Are Popular," [A discussion of the intersection between Leadership Studies and Popular Culture Studies] [Invited paper], Popular Culture Association National Meeting, April 10, 2004.

"Glenn Miller at 100: A Reassessment of his Impact on Popular Culture," British Association of American Studies, 2004 Meeting, Birmingham, United Kingdom, April 18, 2004.

Recognition:

Pennsylvania Humanities Council: Commonwealth Speaker (2004-2006.)

Finalist (1991): The Pennsylvania State University Teacher of the Year Award (Hetzel Award)

Finalist (1992): The Pennsylvania State University Teacher of the Year Award (Hetzel Award