Joyce Oldham Appleby was born in Nebraska on April 9, 1929. After a rootless childhood that involved a number of moves from Illinois to California (and a number of places in between), Appleby attended Stanford University, where she received her BA in History in 1950. After spending a few years working as a writer for Mademoiselle in New York City, she returned to California and subsequently decided to pursue graduate study in history. Following an MA at UC-Santa Barbara, Appleby went on to complete her PhD at Claremont Graduate University in 1966 with a dissertation entitled, “An American in Paris: The Career of an American Pamphlet in French Revolutionary Politics, 1787-89.” In 1968, after a year abroad in Paris with her family, which, by now, included three children, Appleby published her first article in the American Historical Review, “The Jefferson-Adams Rupture and the First French Translation of John Adams’ Defence,” and accepted a job at San Diego State University. Continue reading →