I am a Virginian over 60 years old, with a wide ranging interest in U.S. history and politics and a personal library of over 500 volumes in the field of U.S., Southern and Virginia history. It is periodically updated based on book reviews published in the Washington Post the New York Times, and C-SPANs Book TV. My wife will not let me accumulate more books, so I rely more and more on e-books for the classics like the Federalist Papers and Democracy in America as I replace them on my shelves with newer volumes such as Eric Foner's Reconstruction (2005 ed), always maintaining below the agreed-upon 500 limit.
Schooling. I have had a career in public education. Besides teaching public and private high school in several regions of Virginia, I once taught five years as an adjunct assistant professor of U.S. history in a state community college. As a part of my continuing education over forty years, I have received at G.I. Bill or employer expense, graduate credit in U.S. history courses wherever I have attended university: The College of William and Mary for a masters, James Madison University for a masters, Old Dominion University, and George Mason University. My employer-compensated graduate work at the University of Virginia was in Special Education courses relating to learning disabilities and emotional disabilities for certification in the Virginia post-graduate teaching license.
Professional Development. I have earned recertification credits for state teaching licensure for research seminars at employer expense at the Library of Congress, the Library of Virginia, the Teaching American History (TAH) grant at George Mason University in a year-long cohort, weekend history seminars at the Virginia Historical Society and Mount Vernon, the week-long George Marshall Foundation at Dodona and the Virginia Military Institute campus, and independent research at the Society of the Cincinnati's Anderson House in Washington, D.C.