David Emory Shi is president emeritus at Furman University in Greenville, South Carolina. He is the author of several books focusing on American cultural history, including the award-winning The Simple Life: Plain Living and High Thinking in American Culture and Facing Facts: Realism in American Thought and Culture, 1850–1920, and the best-selling survey texts America: A Narrative History, Full and Brief (now in their Twelfth Editions) and America: Essential Learning Edition (now in its Third Edition). He remains highly engaged with students and instructors around the country with his many annual “author-in-residence” visits to campuses.
