He received his B.A. from the Pennsylvania State University and his Ph.D. in American Studies from the College of William & Mary. His courses concern American cultural history, material culture, memory, and public history. His book, Here, George Washington Was Born: Memory, Material Culture, and the Public History of a National Monument (University of Georgia Press, 2008), considers the history of commemoration in the United States by examining contests of memory and authenticity at the George Washington Birthplace National Monument. He is working on an edited collection of essays, Birth and Commemoration in American Public Memory (forthcoming from University of Massachusetts Press), and a study of public memory and living history in the early republic.