BIO

Over the last five years Ray Raphael has emerged as one of our leading writers on the birth of the United States of America. In 2001 his acclaimed People’s History of the American Revolution widened history’s lens to include those not generally present in tales of our nation’s founding. In 2002 The First American Revolution: Before Lexington and Concord led to marked rethinking about the Revolution’s beginnings in academic circles. In 2004 his Founding Myths: Stories that Hide Our Patriotic Past established new standards for all future renderings of our nation’s birth.

Over the past year-and-one-half (2005-2006), Raphael has opened the plenary session at the annual convention of the leading professional organization in his field (Omohundro Institute of Early American History and Culture); served on a panel, convened specifically to evaluate the implications of his work, at a leading research institution in his field (American Antiquarian Society); interviewed on two History Channel half-hour shows; led a History Channel production team around Boston’s Freedom Trail (two segments have aired, others are pending); consulted with Partisan Pictures and served as one of their lead on-camera historians for a thirteen-hour special on the American Revolution, showing during summer 2006 on the History Channel; spoken to institutes at the New York Historical Society and Valley Forge National Historical Park; spoken to various groups of teachers and students under the sponsorship of the Gilder-Lehrman Foundation and the federally funded Teaching American History grants; written two reviews for the Baltimore Sun, which were featured on the History News Network; written a feature article on history education for Rethinking Schools, a publication that circulates widely among teachers; edited a special issue (summer 2006) on the “Founders” for Forum magazine , with contributing articles from many of the nation’s preeminent Revolutionary scholars (Gordon Wood, Gary Nash, Pauline Maier, Carol Berkin, Al Young, Jack Rakove, Woody Holton, and Richard Beeman). He has also finished work on a comprehensive history of Northwest California. With the help of a fellowship from Gilder-Lehrman Foundation, he has traveled to Charleston, the Southern backcountry, Philadelphia, New York, Boston, and Worcester to conduct research for his book-in-progress (see Works-in-Progress).

Before turning his attention to the American Revolution and the founding of the nation, Raphael published books on subjects as diverse as male initiation rites, education, regional history (Northwest California), and timber politics. His first book, An Everyday History of Somewhere, won the Commonwealth Club award for the best book of the year about California. A Phi Beta Kappa graduate from Reed College, he holds masters degrees from the University of California at Berkeley (Political Philosophy) and Reed College (Teaching Social Science and History). In addition to teaching at Humboldt State University and College of the Redwoods, he has taught all subjects except foreign languages at a one-room public high school in his remote community. He is currently a Senior Research Fellow at Humboldt State University, working full time as a researcher and writer. He lives in the hills of northern California and kayaks whitewater rivers.

Published books:

See Booklist.

Educational Background:

BA, Reed College, 1965 (Phi Beta Kappa)
MA, University of California, Berkeley, 1967 (Woodrow Wilson Fellowship)
MAT, Reed College, 1968 (Inner-city Fellowship)

Teaching experience:

1967-1968: Jefferson High School (Portland, OR)
1968-1971: Urban School of San Francisco
1974-1977: Urban School of San Francisco (part-time)
1976-1979: Whitethorn Elementary School (part-time)
1978-1995: College of the Redwoods (part-time)
1979-1997: Whale Gulch School, Leggett Valley Unified School District (grades 7-12)
1997-2000: Humboldt State University (fieldwork supervisor)

Courses taught at the college level:  United States history (all components), California history, Humboldt County history, Native American studies, critical thinking, and multi-cultural education. Courses taught at the secondary and middle school levels: United States history, world history, English, algebra I and II, geometry, basic math, natural science, physical science, civics, economics, global studies, geography, anthropology, folklore, critical thinking, forestry, and physical education.

Awards and recognition:

Elected to Phi Beta Kappa, 1965
Woodrow Wilson Fellow, 1966-1967
Inner-City Fellow, 1967-1968
Commonwealth Club of California award for the best book of the year about California, 1974 (An Everyday History of Somewhere)
Mentor Teacher, Leggett Valley Unified School District, 1993-1995
Teacher-Scholar Fellow, National Endowment for the Humanities, 1995-1996
Teacher Emeritus, Leggett Valley Unified School District, 1998

Personalized Bio:

Ray Raphael, born in 1943 and raised in New York City, headed west the day after graduating Fieldston high school. During the 1960s he was active in the civil rights movement, spending two summers in the South and working on community organization in the North. In the 1970s he homesteaded in the hills of Northwest California, where he and his wife Marie raised their two sons, Nick and Neil. He taught a comprehensive one-room high school in his remote home as well as evening courses at the local community college, and he began writing about local history and contemporary issues.

In his first book, An Everyday History of Somewhere, Raphael relied extensively on oral histories. In subsequent works dealing with topics of local and regional importance (Edges, Tree Talk, Cash Crop), he adapted this oral history approach, weaving his own narrative around the stories of real people as told in their own words. His treatment of more general topics (Teachers’ Voice, Men from the Boys) likewise relied on in-depth interviews, faithfully rendered. Little White Father, a historical piece, made extensive use of primary documents. He wrote a play on John and Jessie Fremont, which toured various towns in Northern California, and a one-act called Your Life is Your Art, performed at his fiftieth birthday. With his son Neil, then 12 years old, he wrote juvinile mystery called Comic Cops. Locally, he is sometimes referred to as the “Studs Terkel” of Northwest California.

        In the early 1990s, while preparing curriculum for his United States history courses, he became keenly interested in the history of common people during the American Revolution. Stimulated by a year-long grant from the National Endowment of the Humanities, he traveled to Eastern archives to pursue his passion. This work has culminated in the publication of his American Revolution trilogy: People’s History of the American Revolution (2001), The First American Revolution (2002), and Founding Myths (2004).