Fischer's Crossing

David Hackett Fischer, author of Washington's Crossing, tells about how he wound up teaching at Brandeis:

FISCHER: I found a kind of excitement that I didn’t find anywhere else. There were other schools that I had offers from at the same time. One was an old New England school and the people who interviewed me there were interested in who my grandparents were and where I got my sportcoats. I had another offer from a Big Ten school. They wanted to know if I could teach the General Survey course. I said, "How big is the class?" They said it’s usually about 500 students. And then I went to a very good Southern school and they said, "We normally have gatherings to talk about subjects of current concern. Do you want to come over and join us?" I said I would be delighted. What’s the subject? "Capital punishment." So I went over, rehearsing my arguments against capital punishment—and the discussion was about methods of execution.

Then I came to Brandeis, and I met two people: John Roche and Leonard Levy. They were extraordinary characters, hard as nails, devoted to a scholar’s quest. As I arrived, they were having a furious argument about substantive and procedural due process. Their fists were on the table, the coffee cups were flying, and halfway through the conversation they turned to me and said, "Who are you?" I thought: this is the place for me.

Read the whole interview here.