I am a Professor of History at John Jay College, CUNY, where I am also the founding director of the Center on Terrorism. I am also a practicing psychoanalyst in New York City.
One of my specialties is Lincoln. My new book is just out, "Your Friend Forever, A. Lincoln: The Enduring Friendship of Abraham Lincoln and Joshua Speed" from Columbia University Press. This book extends some of my arguments in my first book on Lincoln some 35 years ago, "Lincoln's Quest for Union" (Basic Books) that was the basis of a six-hour PBS documentary produced by David Grubin.
I also have written much in the last few decades about terrorism and apocalyptic violence, including my interview study of survivors and witnesses of 9/11, "Until the Fires Stopped Burning" (Columbia UP) and a study of the psychology of fundamentalism, "The Fundamentalist Mindset" (Oxford University Press).