Dr. Joshua Garrison

Most Influential Book

Discipline & Punish: The Birth of the Prison
I read these books as an undergraduate and their impact on me was profound and lasting. They provided me with a host of questions that I continue to wrestle with today, questions that I attempt to answer through my scholarship and teaching. Though these scholars were not historians of childhood, their work provides a useful framework for thinking about children and their place in our world.

Most Influential Educational Thinker

G. Stanley Hall
Hall was a complex figure, and his work was extremely problematic, almost impossible to translate into today's context. And though content of his ideas is often unacceptable, it is the scope and method of his work that has inspired me. Hall knew that the histories of education and childhood knew no bounds, and--through his genius--he was able to connect those subjects to worlds far and near. __Adolescence__(1904) is an interdisciplinary masterpiece.

Favorite Documentary

The Atomic Cafe
Brilliant in its depiction of the Cold War. It fuses the absurd with the tragic, highlighting human naivete. It remains relevant today, and will remain so for some time.

Best Music for Driving

Disco Biscuits, Trance Fusion Radio Broadcasts, Vols. 1-4
Energetic, but not distracting -- allows the mind to wander with the road

 Best Music for Studying

Keith Jarrett, At the Blue Note: Complete Recordings
Mellow, but not sleepy.

Favorite Author, Fiction

Charles Dickens
An advocate for children and their rights, Dickens is the master of the English language

Favorite Periodical

The New York Review of Books
Cliff's Notes for the academic. Each issue is a surprise.