Former Faculty Member Now Professor Emeritus at Northwestern

While not an alumnus, Dr. Michael Sherry is a former faculty member whom we caught up with recently after discovering his photo on the cover of the 2003 Hamden Hall Magazine. Michael was pictured alongside alumni Richard Peck and David Pilot, classmates from the Class of 1972. The three had attended a Hamden Hall 30th reunion, hosted at the home of Richard Peck’s mother, former faculty member Mary Peck.

Michael taught at Hamden Hall from 1969 through 1971. He left to return to the Yale Graduate School, from which he received a Ph.D. in history in 1975. Shortly thereafter he took a position at Northwestern University, where he remained for 44 years until retirement in 2020. He is now the Richard W. Leopold Professor Emeritus of History.

According to his bio on the Northwestern website, Michael “has taught and written widely about modern US history…He has also been a prolific book reviewer, in venues ranging from the obscure to The New York Times. In recent years his primary professional association has been with the Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations. Topics of his work change, but war, politics, and culture thread through all his work, including his current book project, Go Directly to Jail: The Punitive Turn in American Life.”