Born in New Jersey in 1944, I was raised in a patriotic family and have struggled throughout my life to make sense of America, grappling particularly with the fiction that this “exceptional” nation is uniquely blessed by God. As a writer and university teacher, I have published thirty books and taught writing and American studies at Colby, Harvard, Princeton, Willamette, American University, and the University of Oklahoma. My books on American subjects include American History in 100 Nutshells (Fawcett 1992), The New York Public Library Book of Popular Americana (Macmillan 1994), and Usable Pasts (Utah State University Press 1997).

Following in the footsteps of my historian father, I seek to understand the interplay of  martial values, nationalism, and “normative” masculinity. On college campuses I have taught courses on military culture, the anatomy of revenge, savagery and civilization, and urban legend. For Utah State University Press, I’ve edited two books on military folklore: Warrior Ways (coedited with Eric Eliason, 2012) and Different Drummers (2020). I also cowrote Hammerhead Six (Hachette 2016), Special Forces officer Ronald Fry’s memoir of his combat unit’s deployment in Afghanistan. My shorter military publications include papers on Barry Sadler’s “Ballad of the Green Berets,” Vietnam War memory narratives, World War I trench songs, and a naval officer’s code I called “Brotherhood of the Sea.” 

As a student in the 1960s, I studied humanities at Yale, literature at Cornell, and American studies at the University of Sussex in England. I hold a Ph.D. in folklore and cultural anthropology from the University of Texas at Austin, where my dissertation examined the photographic “othering” of Mexico in the 1920s. As a member of the American Folklore Society, I have given papers on yellow ribbons, the tooth fairy, the border term gringo, and conventional representations of Mexico and Italy.

My fiction writing includes three Kung Fu novels (written under the name Marshall Macao), the “spiritual adventure” novel Land of Precious Snow, and a children’s animal fable, Hesperides the Aarborg. As a songwriter working often with my wife Andrée Nolen, I received a development grant from the Puffin Foundation and, working with Wonderlands Studios in Buda, Texas, released two EPs, “Waters Wide Between” and “Gather,” with tracks accessible on You Tube and Spotify under the artist name Skip Yarrow. My poems have appeared in Blue Collar Review, Better than Starbucks, Sparks of Calliope, The Road Not Taken, and Adirondack Review. Three unpublished chapbooks of my verse appear on this website, as do the lyrics to many of my songs; my Substack channel “Onward through the Fog” contains occasional takes on politics. My latest essay, “Grievance Tales,” appears in Luke Ritter’s book American Conspiracism (Routledge 2025). My latest book, a memoir entitled Skirmishes with Patriotism, is being published by the University Press of Kentucky in 2026. 

I particularly enjoy collaborative writing. I’ve cowritten or ghostwritten a dozen books and I welcome inquiries from folks needing professional assistance with their own writing projects. I’d also love to hear your thoughts on my books or any of the pieces available on this website. You can reach me through the Contact form below.