Ph.D. in History, The Pennsylvania State University, 1989
MPA (1976), MA (1984) The Pennsylvania State University
BA (1974), University of Wyoming
The American Presidency
Leadership Studies
Leadership in Popular Culture
Political History
The Early American Republic
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)
Scholarly Recognition:
Pennsylvania Humanities Council: Commonwealth Speaker (2004-2006.)
Service Recognition:
Grants:
Fishwick Travel Grant for Travel to Popular Culture Archives (2004) [Funds for travel to Glenn Miller Archives in Boulder, Colorado.
Grant for the NEH Summer Seminar: “The Early American Republic and the Problem of Governance.”
“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)
Reprinted in: Meena Bose and Mark Landis, Eds., The Uses and Abuses of Presidential Ratings (Hauppauge, NY, Nova Publishers, 2003.)
“The Lewistown Riots, 1791-1793 A Micro-analytic Approach.” Pennsylvania History (December, 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 William Pencak, ed., 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 (Winter, 2004)
Review of Don Higgebotham, George Washington: Uniting A Nation for H-War (April, 2005)
Conferences:
"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." 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)
“Strangers 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 Athe 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 on 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, Manchester, United Kingdom, April 18, 2004.
“Evaluating Carter, Reagan, G.H.W. Bush, Clinton, G.W. Bush: The New Blessing-Skleder Survey,” The International Leadership Association, 2004 Meeting, Washington, D.C. , November 5, 2004.
“Control, Violence and Independence: The Huntingdon County-Mifflin County Border Dispute, 1790-1792,” Pennsylvania Historical Association, 2005 Meeting, Pittsburgh, PA, October 21, 2005.
“The Right Time, the Right Place, the Right Leader: A Model of Punctuated Equilibrium and Leadership” 2005 International Leadership Conference Annual Meeting, Amsterdam, NL; November 4, 2005.
“Myths, People and Presidents: the Meta-Analysis of Group Myths as Detected by the Murray-Blessing and Blessing-Skleder Surveys,” 2005 International Leadership Conference, Amsterdam, NL; November 5, 2005.
“Comparing the First & Last Nine Presidents: The Breakdown of the Selection Process,” 2006 British Association of American Studies, Canterbury, UK; April 21, 2006.
“Rising to the Theoretical: Encouraging Mid-Career Professionals to Encounter Classic Theoretical Structures,” 2007 International Leadership Conference, Vancouver, CA ; November 2, 2007.
“Defining a Free Press: Shades of Meaning in the 1790 Pennsylvania Constitutional Convention.” Northeast Political Science Association; Philadelphia, PA; November 16, 2007.
“Historians and Presidential Abuses of Power: A Look at the Conservative-Liberal Divide.” 2008 British Association of American Studies, Edinburgh (Scotland), UK; March 29, 2008.
“Commonalities Among the Eight Leading Presidents: A Tentative Theory of Process and Founding.” Conference on “Attributes of Successful Presidents.” Massachusetts School of Law, Andover MA; April 27, 2008.