Ph.D. in American Civilization, Brown University; M.S. in Journalism, Columbia University; Professor Emeritus, Hayes Chair in the Humanities at the University of New Hampshire. His teaching centered on the cultural and intellectual history of early America. His books include The Eastern Frontier, a pioneering social history of northern New England; The Public Prints, a study of the beginnings of English and American newspapers; The Meetinghouse Tragedy, a detailed account of an episode in eighteenth-century Wilton, New Hampshire; two books on Maine, and a recent history of Bates College.