Born in Brookline, MA and educated at Dartmouth (2yrs), Harvard (2yrs); after a 3-year tour as an infantry officer in the US Marines, back to Harvard for a Ph.D. in the History of American Civilization. Taught at Oklahoma State University for 37 yrs, attaining the rank of Regents Professor. Toward end of teaching career, courses focused on motion pictures and their impact on society. Publications can be summarized as "film and history studies," most of which were published by the UP of Kentucky, although the epic was The Columbia Companion to American History in Film. Hollywood as Historian, Hollywood's West, Hollywood's White House, etc. Full details on publications are at petercrollins.com where there are click points for full details and purchase. Editor of Film & History for 12 years. Most indebted to John E. O'Connor, my mentor in this effort and co-editor in so many of the book projects. Filmmaking was an option and I made documentaries about Will Rogers, the Vietnam war, World War II. (See America Reflected for details on these projects.) I was a strong advocate of "the historian as filmmaker" movement in this country, an effort which was overtaken by journalistic efforts on the History Channel and PBS. America Reflected is my most recent effort and contains materials on Will Rogers, Benjamin Whorf, war on film, and canonical figures such as Harriet Beecher Stowe, John James Audubon, Frederick Henry Hedge, Amy Lowell, and others. America Reflected is my capstone book, an attempt to put the best of my writings on the library shelves. My life has been a wonderful gift.
