Educated at Vassar and Harvard, Mr. Shenkman is an Emmy award-winning investigative reporter and the former managing editor of KIRO-TV, the CBS affiliate in Seattle. In 1997 he was the host, writer and producer of a prime time series for The Learning Channel inspired by his books on myths. In 2008 he was elected a Fellow of the Society of American Historians. He gives lectures at colleges around the country on several topics, including American myths and presidential politics.

Historian, Producer, Journalist, Lecturer

          Rick Shenkman is a writer, historian, producer, journalist and college lecturer; for several years he was the managing editor of KIRO TV News, the CBS affiliate in Seattle, Washington.  He was the co-founder of TomPaine.com, an Internet journal of opinion established in 1998.  He is the author of  six history books including, Legends, Lies and Cherished Myths of American History, which was on the New York Times Best Seller List for four months.  His latest book is Just How Stupid Are We? Facing the Truth About the American Voter (Basic Books, June 2008).

            His books have been translated into Spanish, Japanese, Turkish and Korean.  Excerpts have appeared in college textbooks used in English classes across the country.  Three of his books have been selections of the Book of the Month Club and the Paperback Book Club.

            Mr. Shenkman has appeared numerous times on national television shows including the Today Show and Prime Time Live.  In the early 1990s he was a regular contributor to the Sunday Today Show.  He currently is regularly seen on Fox News, CNN, and MSNBC.

            In 1996-97 he hosted his own prime time 13-part television series on The Learning Channel.  The show, "Myth America," featured interviews with the country's top historians including Carl Degler, Henry Graff, and James Thomas Flexner.  Mr. Shenkman wrote and produced the show, which was inspired by three of his books.

            Educated at Vassar and Harvard, Mr. Shenkman has studied the American presidents for two decades.  After college he spent a year working on the Papers of Andrew Jackson.

            His career as a journalist began more than two decades ago in New York City, where he hosted a show on cable TV putting current events into historical perspective.  He later worked as a television reporter in Lexington, Kentucky, Oklahoma City, Salt Lake City, and Washington, DC.  As an Emmy-award winning investigative reporter he exposed an orphanage in Thailand exploited by a children’s sex ring and uncovered fraud and abuse at Utah’s largest power company, leading to the rebate of over 60 million dollars to state ratepayers.  He also exposed the duplicitous means a billionaire candidate for governor used on his path to power.  (The candidate subsequently withdrew from the race.)

HIGHLIGHTS

• New York Times Best Selling Author
• Presidential Historian
• Former Contributor to the NBC Sunday Today Show
• Producer/Writer/Host of series on The Learning Channel
• Adjunct Lecturer in Journalism at American University
• Educated at Vassar and Harvard
• Internet Journalist

HISTORIAN

• Associate Professor of History, George Mason University (2002 to present)
• Just How Stupid Are We?  Facing the Truth About the American Voter (Basic Books, 2008)
• “TV, Democracy and the Presidency,” chapter in Mark Carnes, ed., The Columbia History of the United States, 1945–2000 (forthcoming from Columbia University Press).
• Presidential Ambition:  How the Presidents Gained Power, Kept Power and Got Things Done (HarperCollins, 1999)
• Legends, Lies & Cherished Myths of World History (HarperCollins, 1993)
• "I Love Paul Revere Whether He Rode or Not" (HarperCollins, 1991)
• Legends, Lies & Cherished Myths of American History (William Morrow, 1989) ... New York Times Best Seller (four months)
• One-Night Stands with American History, with Kurt Reiger (William Morrow, 1980)

JOURNALIST

• EDITOR & FOUNDER of HistoryNewsNetwork.org (2001-present)
• MEMBER OF THE STEERING COMMITTEE of the History News Service
• ADJUNCT LECTURER in journalism, American University (1997-1998)
• MANAGING EDITOR and CO-FOUNDER of TomPaine.com, an Internet magazine (1998-2000)
• MANAGING EDITOR, KIRO-TV (CBS affiliate), Seattle (1993-1995)
• CONTRIBUTING REPORTER, NBC SUNDAY TODAY SHOW (1991)
• WASHINGTON D.C. BUREAU CHIEF, KUTV NEWS (1989-1990)
• INVESTIGATIVE REPORTER, KUTV NEWS, Salt Lake City  (1982-1989)
• OVERNIGHT REPORTER, KOCO TV, Oklahoma City (1981-1982)
• GENERAL ASSIGNMENT REPORTER, WTVQ, Lexington, KY (1981)

TV PRODUCER

• Producer and writer, The Tech Effect:  The Assassination of John F. Kennedy (History Channel, 2004)
• Producer and writer, Super Structures:  “The Pentagon” (Discovery Channel, 2003)
• Producer, writer, host, "Myth America," prime-time television series on THE LEARNING CHANNEL (1996-1997)

COLLEGE LECTURER

Mr. Shenkman has appeared on college campuses across the country.  He is represented by the Contemporary Issues Agency (http://www.ciaspeakers.com/).

• “Election 2004:  The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Voters”
• “Why They Hate Us”
• “Myth America”
•  “White House Lies”

HONORS

• Elected a Fellow of the Society of American Historians (2008)
• ROCKY MOUNTAIN EMMY for an expose of a children’s sex ring in Thailand (1990).
• VASSAR PRIZE IN HISTORY, Vassar College (1976)

EDUCATION

• HARVARD GRADUATE SCHOOL, Program in American Civilization (1977-1978)
• VASSAR COLLEGE, Cum Laude degree in History (1976)