David M. Oshinsky received his undergraduate degree from Cornell University and his doctorate from Brandeis. His is currently Jack S. Blanton Chair of History at the University of Texas at Austin. Prior to that he taught for 26 years at Rutgers University, where he held the Board of Governors Chair as well as chairman of the History Department. Oshinsky is the author of five books, including A CONSPIRACY SO IMMENSE: THE WORLD OF JOE MCCARTHY (1983), which was voted one of the year’s “best books” by the “New York Sunday Times Book Review,” and won the Hardeman Prize for the best work about the U.S. Congress. His book, WORSE THAN SLAVERY: PARCHMAN FARM AND THE ORDEAL OF JIM CROW JUSTICE (1996), won both the Robert Kennedy Book Award for the year’s most distinguished contribution to the field of human rights and the American Bar Association’s Scribes Award for distinguished legal writing. Oshinsky’s latest book is POLIO: AN AMERICAN STORY (2005).
