Born in Portland, Maine. A graduate of Colby College (1977), received his Ph.D. from Brandeis University (1986).

Research Interests

Early American history (colonial revolutionary and early republic); history of the American West; History of Canada (pre-Confederation)

Selected Publications

The Divided Ground: Indians, Settlers, and the Northern Borderland of the American Revolution (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2006). 

Writing Early American History (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2005). 

American Colonies (New York: Viking/Penguin, 2001) 

William Cooper's Town: Power and Persuasion on the Frontier of the Early American Republic (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1995). 

Liberty Men and Great Proprietors: the Revolutionary Settlement on the Maine Frontier 1760-1820 (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1990).