John A. Moretta earned a B.A. in History from Santa Clara University in CA., an M.A. in History from Portland State University in Oregon, and a Ph.D. in History from Rice University in Houston, Texas. He is currently Professor of History and Chair of the Social Sciences Dept. of Central College, Houston Community College System in Houston, Texas. Dr. Moretta is also an adjunct professor at the University of Houston, where he has taught both undergraduate and graduate classes on a variety of historical topics, ranging from Texas history to United States history through American fiction. He is also an adjunct professor of history in the university’s Honor’s College. Dr. Moretta’s first book, William Pitt Ballinger, Texas Lawyer, Southern Statesman, won the 2003 San Antonio Conservation Society’s award for one of the best books in Texas history. In addition to his book, Dr. Moretta has also written several articles on Texas history, published in both local and national historical journals, such as Civil War History. He is a co-author of The Western Dream of Civilization and American Dreams, American Reality. He is currently completing a biography of William Penn for Addison Wesley Longman’s Library of American Biography Series. Expected publication date is fall, 2005.

Carl Luna is a professor of Political Science and chair of the Accelerated College Program at San Diego Mesa College and is a regular lecturer on American politics, comparative politics, and international political economy at the University of San Diego. Dr. Luna received his Ph.D. from American University, Washington, D.C. and his B.A. in political science, history, and philosophy from the University of San Diego. In addition to teaching and research, he is a recurrent guest on San Diego radio and television, commenting on local, state, and national politics, and writes frequently on politics for the San Diego Union Tribune and writes the political weblog “Political Lunacy” for the paper’s on-line service. He has also been a commentator on presidential and California politics for PBS’s Online NewsHour, USA Today, CBS news and BBC radio. Dr. Luna is a former Fulbright scholar (lecturing on American politics and political economy at Nizhniy Novgorod State University, Russian Federation during the 1999/2000 academic year). He is a contributing author to The Western Dream of Civilization and an editor and revision author for People & Politics: Introduction to American Government, Gregory Publishing Company.

Michael Phillips is a professor of American history at Collin College in Plano, Texas. He specializes in the history of American race and gender relations, politics, religion, and extremist groups. Phillips received his Ph.D. in history from the University of Texas at Austin in 2002. Phillips revised his award-winning dissertation, subsequently published by the University of Texas Press in 2006 as “White Metropolis: Race, Ethnicity and Religion in Dallas, 1841-2001,” which was awarded the T.R. Fehrenbach Book Award for Best Book on Texas History by the Texas Historical Commission in 2007. He also co-authored (with Patrick Cox) The House Will Come to Order: How the Texas Speaker Became a Power in State and National Politics (2010) and contributed essays that appeared in The Harlem Renaissance in the West: The New Negroes’ Western Experience and Beyond Texas Through Time: Breaking Away From Past Interpretations (both in 2011). He also authored numerous chapters that appear in both volumes of The American Challenge: A New History of the United States, published by Abigail Press.