Prof. Michael Barton received his doctorate in American Civilization at the University of Pennsylvania in 1974 and has been a faculty member in the American Studies program at the Harrisburg campus of Penn State University for over four decades. His teaching and research cover three areas--the values and experiences of Civil War soldiers, the American national character, and the history of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. His Civil War books are Goodmen: The Character of Civil War Soldiers (Penn State, 1981), The Civil War Soldier: A Historical Reader (NYU, 2002), co-edited with Prof. Larry Logue, and The Civil War Veteran: A Historical Reader (NYU, 2007) also co-edited with Logue. Recently, he began editing for publication with his students the "lost" regimental history of the 209th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry, and the lengthy memoir of Sgt. Christian Lenker of the 19th Ohio Volunteer Infantry.He has lectured on the American character in Scotland, Finland, Ireland, Australia, Poland, Bulgaria, Mauritania, Netherlands, Portugal, Greece, Republic of the Congo, Republic of Georgia, Canada, France, Germany and Denmark, where he was a Fulbright professor of American Studies at the University of Copenhagen in 1999. He has also been a US State Department consultant to American Studies programs at several universities overseas. Prof. Barton's Harrisburg histories began with Life by the Moving Road: An Illustrated History of Greater Harrisburg (American Historical Press; 3rd ed. 2009). Harrisburg's Old Eighth Ward (Arcadia, 2002), which he co-edited with Prof. Jessica Dorman, became the basis for an original musical, "The Bloody Eighth," performed by the Capitol Dinner Theater in 2003 and 2004. His latest works are Citizen Extraordinaire: The Diplomatic Diaries of Vance McCormick in London and Paris, 1917-1919 (Stackpole, 2004), which he co-edited with more than fifty student editors; To a Harmony with Our Souls: A History of Jazz in Central Pennsylvania (Benchmark, 2005), a team project for which he was editor-in-chief; and Bellevue Park: The First Hundred Years (Xlibris, 2009), which he co-wrote and co-edited with Jeannine Turgeon. Recently he completed a photographic history of a Pennsylvania mill town, Steelton (Arcadia, 2008), with his colleague, Prof. Simon Bronner, and he has edited newspaper columns written by a local noted journalist, Paul Beers, under the title City Contented, City Discontented: A History of Modern Harrisburg (Midtown Scholar Press, 2011). Barton supervises websites that feature student work on the city's historic Eighth Ward, the McCormick Family Papers, and the antebellum journals of attorney Charles Rawn. He is currently working with city and state officials on the re-establishment of the Harrisburg City Archives, the celebration of the city's 150th anniversary, and the re-enactment of the US Colored Troops Grand Review in the city. The Harrisburg Patriot-News has named him "Top Harrisburg History Writer," and the Pennsylvania Federation of Museums and Historical Organizations has given him its Award of Merit for Contributions to Public History. He has been a member of the governing Council of the Pennsylvania Historical Association and the editorial board of Pennsylvania History.