Gregory D. Sumner is a professor of History at
University of Detroit Mercy and the author of the books ''
Dwight Macdonald
Dwight Macdonald (March 24, 1906 – December 19, 1982) was an American writer, editor, film critic, social critic, literary critic, philosopher, and activist. Macdonald was a member of the New York Intellectuals and editor of their leftist maga ...
'' and the ''
Politics Circle,'' ''Unstuck in Time: A Journey Through
Kurt Vonnegut's Life and Novels, and Detroit in World War II''.
Early career
Sumner received his
Juris Doctor
The Juris Doctor (J.D. or JD), also known as Doctor of Jurisprudence (J.D., JD, D.Jur., or DJur), is a graduate-entry professional degree in law
and one of several Doctor of Law degrees. The J.D. is the standard degree obtained to practice law ...
degree in 1980 from the
University of Michigan Law School and went on to practice as a corporate attorney at Bingham Summers Welsh & Spilman, Esq. in
Indianapolis
Indianapolis (), colloquially known as Indy, is the state capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Indiana and the seat of Marion County. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the consolidated population of Indianapolis and Marion ...
Transition to history
Following his interests, Sumner went back to school and received his doctorate in American history from
Indiana University in 1992. He became an assistant professor at Grand Valley State University in
Grand Rapids
Grand Rapids is a city and county seat of Kent County in the U.S. state of Michigan. At the 2020 census, the city had a population of 198,917 which ranks it as the second most-populated city in the state after Detroit. Grand Rapids is the ...
for one year before joining the history department at University of Detroit Mercy in 1993.
Sumner is co-chair of the UDM Department of History.
Awards and fellowships
* William J. Fulbright Lecturer at
University of Rome III in
Rome,
Italy (2001 and 2010)
* National Endowment for the Humanities Summer Fellowship at City College of New York (1998)
* National Endowment for the Humanities Summer Fellowship at UCLA (1994)
Seven Stories Press, 2011
/ref>
Writings
Books
* ''Detroit in World War II (History Press
The History Press is a British publishing company specialising in the publication of titles devoted to local and specialist history. It claims to be the United Kingdom's largest independent publisher in this field, publishing approximately 300 ...
, 2015).
* ''Welcome to the Monkey House: The Special Edition'' ( Random House, 2014).
* ''Unstuck in Time: A Journey Through Kurt Vonnegut's Life and Works'' (Seven Stories Press
Seven Stories Press is an independent American publishing company. Based in New York City, the company was founded by Dan Simon in 1995, after establishing Four Walls Eight Windows in 1984 as an imprint at Writers and Readers, and then incorpora ...
, November 11, 2011)
* ''Dwight Macdonald and the Politics Circle: The Challenge of Cosmopolitan Democracy'' ( Cornell University Press, 1996)
Articles
*
Vonnegut's Firefighters
, thenewinquiry.com (September 11, 2011)
*
Slaughterhouse-Five at Forty", inthesetimes.com
(December 23, 2009)
* "Soldiers of Conscience", Peace Review (January–March 2009)
*
Planetary Citizen: Kurt Vonnegut, 1922-2007
, New Politics (Winter 2008)
*
The Gentleman from Indianapolis
, Indiana Magazine of History (September 2007)
* "No Easy Exit", ''Una Citta'' (Forli, November 2006)
* "Miasma of Trouble at the White House", ''Una Citta'' (2005)
* "Four More Years: Reflections on the 2004 Election", ''Una Citta'' (November 2004)
* "Dwight Macdonald," entry for Dictionary of Modern American Philosophers (2005, Thoemmes Press)
* "Iraq and the Tragic Lessons of Force," ''Una Citta'' (October 2003)
* "Notes on the Iraq War" ''Una Citta'' (May 2003)
* "Remembering an Expansive Decade", New Politics (Summer 1999)
* "The politics Circle and the Search for a Third Camp," in ''Twenty Four Ways of Looking at Mary McCarthy'' (Greenwood Press, 1996)
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Sumner, Greg
American biographers
American male biographers
University of Michigan Law School alumni