Douglas Brinkley

Douglas Brinkley
Douglas Brinkley in April 2007
Born	(1960-12-14) December 14, 1960 (age 56) Atlanta, Georgia
Occupation	Historian
Nationality	American
Genre	Nonfiction

Douglas Brinkley (born December 14, 1960) is an American author, professor of history at Rice University and a fellow at the James A. Baker III Institute for Public Policy. Brinkley is the history commentator for CNN News and a contributing editor to the magazines Vanity Fair and American Heritage. A public spokesperson on conservation issues, Brinkley serves as an editor at Audubon Magazine. He joined the faculty of Rice University as a professor of history in 2007.

Brinkley was born in Atlanta, Georgia in 1960, but raised in Perrysburg, Ohio. His parents were high school teachers.

Brinkley was educated at Perrysburg High School, a public high school in his hometown of Perrysburg, Ohio, followed by Ohio State University, from which he earned a B.A. (1982), and Georgetown University, earning an M.A. (1983) and Ph.D. (1989) in U.S. diplomatic history. He has been on the faculty of Hofstra University, the University of New Orleans, Tulane University, and Rice University. He received an honorary doctorate for his contributions to American letters from Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut.

During the early 1990s, Brinkley taught American Arts and Politics for Hofstra aboard the Majic Bus, a roving transcontinental classroom, from which emerged the book The Majic Bus: An American Odyssey (1993). In 1993, he left Hofstra to teach at the University of New Orleans, where he taught the class again using two natural-gas fueled buses. According to the Associated Press, "...if you can't tour the United States yourself, the next best thing is to go along with Douglas Brinkley aboard The Majic Bus."