MATTSON, Kevin 1966-

PERSONAL: Born December 25, 1966, in Cheverly, MD; son of Roger and Marilyn (a social worker) Mattson. Education: New School for Social Research, B.A., 1990; University of Rochester, Ph.D., 1994. Politics: "Left of center Democrat."

ADDRESSES: Home—32 Sunnyside Dr., Athens, OH 45701. Offıce—Department of History, Ohio University, Athens, OH 45701-2979. E-mail— [email protected].

CAREER: Rochester Institute of Technology, Rochester, NY, professor, 1994-95; Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ, professor of humanities and affiliate of Walt Whitman Center, 1995-2001; Ohio University, Athens, associate professor of history, 2001—. Worked with Eastern Service Workers of America; Student Conservation Association, former crew leader; volunteered in literacy programs and with Volunteers of America.

WRITINGS:

Creating a Democratic Public: The Struggle for Urban Participatory Democracy during the Progressive Era, Pennsylvania State University Press (University Park, PA), 1998.

(Editor, with Ronald Hayduck) Democracy's Moment: Reforming the American Political System for the 21st Century, Rowman & Littlefield (Lanham, MD), 2002.

Intellectuals in Action: The Origins of the New Left and Radical Liberalism, 1945-1970, Pennsylvania State University Press (University Park, PA), 2002.

(Editor, with Benjamin Johnson and Patrick Kavanagh) Steal This University: The Rise of the Corporate University and an Academic Labor Movement, Routledge (New York, NY), 2003.

Author of introduction, The New State, by Mary Parker Follett, Pennsylvania State University Press (University Park, PA); report writer for Kettering Foundation and Markle Foundation. Contributor to periodicals, including American Historical Review, American Studies, Commonweal, Dissent, Social Theory and Practice, Baffler, Telos, and New York History.

WORK IN PROGRESS: Youth and Political Participation in America; editing Interviews and Conversations with Christopher Lasch; research for The L-Word: An Autopsy of the American Liberal Persuasion (tentative title), an examination of post-World War II liberalism as an intellectual movement.

SIDELIGHTS: Kevin Mattson once told CA: "Writing, for me, is about combining passion and reason together. You write in order to convey a passionately held belief(s). You want to convince people, and the best way to do that is make your words public. But by stepping into the process of writing, you submit to a challenge—to turn passion into reasoned prose capable of being understood by a wider audience.

"I am concerned with the current state of American politics and culture. I care about the state of public life in America—that means, caring about the state of democracy, public debate, economic life, and culture. That should be the concern of all American citizens. I write in order to contribute to the current debate on these things (what little debate we have that hasn't been stolen by a numbing mass media). That's why my first book was an examination of the current state of American democracy through the lens of history. All of my work is (and hopefully will be) concerned with what we need to make our democracy work better."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

American Historical Review, February, 2000, review of Creating a Democratic Public: The Struggle for Urban Participatory Democracy during the Progressive Era.

Choice, July, 1998, review of Creating a Democratic Public, p. 1929.

Chronicle of Higher Education, June 14, 2002, Scott McLemee, review of Intellectuals in Action: The Origins of the New Left and Radical Liberalism, 1945-1970, p. A17.

Journal of Politics, February, 1999, review of Creating a Democratic Public, p. 232.

Library Journal, June 1, 2002, Jack Forman, review of Intellectuals in Action, p. 174.

ONLINE

H-Net Reviews in the Humanities and Social Sciences,http://www2.h-net.msu.edu/ (March, 2000), Philip J. Ethington, review of Creating a Democratic Public.*