History Man

A very interesting and insightful profile of my old friend Richard Rabinowitz in The Atlantic, which cites him (deservedly) as "the premier public historian in America".

I first met Richard and his wife Lynda late one evening in the library of our hotel in the Outer Hebrides, in the early 1990s.  Other guests had all long since gone to bed, and they were reading Daniel Deronda to each other.  How could you not instantly like people who did that?

By far the most learned person I have ever met, Richard can speak knowledgeably - but more importantly, intriguingly - on almost any subject worth discussing, from baseball to malt whisky to the history of the Brooklyn Bridge.  He was kind enough to be nice about a little exhibition I once (amateurly) curated when I was running the Harris Arts Festival, and whose appeal to him this profile now makes me better understand.  I last saw him at a particularly tribal meeting of the Yankees and the Red Sox at the new Yankee Stadium; an evening full of interesting revelations!

American History Workshop, which Lynda and Richard run, has in recent years mounted some truly groundbreaking shows at the New York Historical Society.  Stop by if you're there.