WOODS, Thomas E., Jr. 1972-

PERSONAL:

Born 1972; married; children: three. Education: Harvard University, B.A.; Columbia University, M.A., M.Phil., Ph.D.

ADDRESSES:

Home—Auburn, AL. Office—Ludwig von Mises Institute, 518 W. Magnolia Ave., Auburn, AL 36832-4528. E-mail—[email protected].

CAREER:

Suffolk Community College, Long Island, NY, former history faculty member; Ludwig von Mises Institute, Auburn, AL, senior faculty member; associate scholar, Abbeville Institute. Has made guest appearances on television and radio programs.

AWARDS, HONORS:

Olive W. Garvey Fellowship, Independent Institute, 2003; O.P. Alford III Prize for Libertarian Scholarship, 2004.

WRITINGS:

(Editor) The Political Writings of Rufus Choate, Regnery Publishing (Lanham, MD), 2002.

(Editor, with Orestes A. Brownson) The American Republic, Gateway Editions (Lanham, MD), 2003.

The Church Confronts Modernity: Catholic Intellectuals and the Progressive Era, Columbia University Press (New York, NY), 2004.

The Politically Incorrect Guide to American History, Regnery Publishing (Lanham, MD), 2004.

How the Catholic Church Built Western Civilization, Regnery Publishing (Lanham, MD), 2005.

The Church and the Market: A Catholic Defense of the Free Economy, Lexington Books (Lanham, MD), 2005.

Contributor to periodicals, including American Historical Review, Christian Science Monitor, Investor's Business Daily, Modern Age, American Studies, Catholic Social Science Review, Journal of Markets and Morality, New Oxford Review, Catholic World Report, The Freeman, Independent Review, Religion and Liberty, Journal des Economistes et des Études Humaines, AD2000, Christian Order, Crisis, and Human Rights Review. Associate editor, Latin Mass; contributing editor, American Conservative; member of editorial advisory board, Journal of Libertarian Studies.

SIDELIGHTS:

A political conservative and devout Catholic, Thomas E. Woods, Jr., found himself in the minority as a history student at Ivy League universities and as a professor of history at the college level. He became increasingly frustrated with what he felt was a liberal retelling of American history. In a 2004 interview with Campus Report online contributor Malcolm A. Kline, Woods commented: "Every semester I have to pick a new book and I have to pick the least bad book and it's really depressing.… Other conservative academics from across the country have the same problem." Woods channeled this discontent into writing 2004's The Politically Incorrect Guide to American History, which belied expectations to become a New York Times top-ten best seller.

The volume polarized critics and readers, some of whom praised Woods for challenging a "revisionist" and biased version of history, others who condemned the book as historically incorrect. James W. Haley, Jr., a Weekly Standard reviewer, described the book as "a compelling rebuttal to the liberal sentiment encrusted upon current history texts.… This is a book everyone interested in American history should have in his library." California Literary Review contributor Robert C. Cheeks called it "an extremely entertaining, page-turning, delight." Writing for the New American, John F. McManus remarked that the book "is repeatedly spiced with humor amidst page after page of solid history.… Woods laments: 'Americans, by and large, do not know enough of their own history to be able to challenge any of it, or even to realize that a problem exists.' Those who read The Politically Incorrect Guide to American History will not only discover the problem, they will be well equipped to challenge both bad history and all who spread it." Conversely, New York Times reviewer Adam Cohen wrote: "The introduction bills the book as an effort to 'set the record straight,' but it is actually an attempt to push the record far to the right.… The book reads less like history than a call to action, since so many of its historical arguments track the current political agenda of the far right."

Woods's other writings focus on his research on the Catholic Church in modern times. The Church Confronts Modernity: Catholic Intellectuals and the Progressive Era is Woods's first book and had its beginnings in his doctoral dissertation, in which he studied Catholic intellectualism in the early 1900s. Books and Culture reviewer Eugene McCarraher called it "a lucid and accessible book" with a conclusion that "beckons to a recovery of all that was best in neo-scholastic Catholicism. For a new generation 'coming of age,' that's a boldness wiser than any maturity." Margaret Mary Reher wrote in the Catholic Historical Review that the book is "provocative, well-written, and deserves to be read."

How the Catholic Church Built Western Civilization and The Church and the Market: A Catholic Defense of the Free Economy were both published in 2005. The former looks at how the Catholic Church impacted Western history from the days after the collapse of the Roman Empire, and the latter is a look at the connection between Catholicism and free-market economics.

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Books and Culture, November-December, 2004, Eugene McCarraher, "Restore All Things in Thomas?," review of The Church Confronts Modernity: Catholic Intellectuals and the Progressive Era, p. 30.

Catholic Historical Review, April, 2005, Margaret Mary Reher, review of The Church Confronts Modernity, p. 393.

New American, February 21, 2005, John F. McManus, "Correcting the Politically Correct: The Politically Incorrect Guide to American History Is a Must-Read for Those Seeking Historical Facts Free of White-Washing and Revisionism," p. 32.

New York Times, January 26, 2005, Adam Cohen, "The Difference between Politically Incorrect and Historically Wrong," review of The Politically Incorrect Guide to American History, p. A16.

Weekly Standard, January 31, 2005, James W. Haley, Jr., review of The Politically Incorrect Guide to American History, p. 39.

ONLINE

California Literary Review,http://www.calitreview.com/ (August 1, 2006), Robert C. Cheeks, "History, As If Truth Mattered," review of The Politically Incorrect Guide to American History.

Campus Report Online,http://www.campusreportonline.net/ (December 14, 2004), Malcolm A. Kline, "Politically Incorrect Historian," interview with Woods.

Thomas E. Woods, Jr., Home Page,http://www.thomasewoods.com (July 24, 2006).