The author of over 100 books for children, middle-grade, high school, and college readers, Tim McNeese focuses on historical themes ranging from American history to the history of Western civilization. His works are written typically to enhance the classroom learning experience. McNeese's books deal with elements of history from battles to presidents, as well as methods of transport and construction. He has also written more than a dozen biographies on historical figures from Marco Polo to General H. Norman Schwarzkopf. His seven-volume "American Timeline" books, twelve-volume "A History of Civilization," books, and seven-volume "The American Experience" books are all published by Milliken and are used in classrooms across the country. McNeese has also published with several other publishers in both the United States and Great Britain. A former teacher of history at the middle school and high school levels, and currently a college professor, McNeese brings the training of a professional researcher and educator to his books, which are known for their accuracy of detail and use of contemporary materials and eyewitness accounts.
"I have formed a career around both teaching and writing," says McNeese. "Though sometimes requiring a tricky balance of time, energy, and resources, I enjoy both profoundly and receive a great deal of satisfaction from each. It has provided many payoffs for me, both personal and professional. Although I am currently teaching college students, writing for a younger audience has remained important to me. I found my niche writing for the middle grade and high school crowd a long time ago, and I have no intention of abandoning them any time soon. I get a personal kick out of knowing I am writing books that introduce young, eager students to their first taste of subjects ranging from the Great Wall of China to nineteenth-century stagecoaches."
McNeese was born in Nebraska in 1953, and received his college education at York College in Nebraska, Harding University in Arkansas, and at Missouri State University, where he earned a master's degree in history in 1981. His writing has earned him a citation in the library reference work Contemporary Authors and multiple citations in Best Books for Young Teen readers.
He began his teaching career in 1976; ten years later he wrote his first history books for young readers, the "American Timeline" books, targeted at grades seven to nine, including individual titles such as Settlements, 1607-1755. In 1993, after he had begun teaching at the college level, he produced eight titles in the "Americans on the Move" series for Crestwood House. This middle grade series traces the development of different modes of eighteenth-and nineteenth-century transport in the United States, from canal traffic and stagecoaches to turnpikes. Blending black-and-white illustration with informative text, McNeese is "especially good at choosing incidents and anecdotes to illustrate these brief histories," according to Joyce Adams Burner in a School Library Journal review of America's First Railroads and other books in the series. Burner further praised the books as "well organized, and . . . useful for reports." In America's Early Canals, McNeese serves up an introduction to several of these, such as the Potomac Canal, the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal, and the Erie Canal, providing interesting facts about who built the passageways and how boats moved along their waters. Reviewing both America's Early Canals and From Trails to Turnpikes, Booklist's Carolyn Phelan found that both titles "offer useful information about aspects of early American travel."
Similarly, McNeese investigates great feats of construction through the ages in the "Building History" series, including the titles The Panama Canal, The Great Wall of China, The New York Subway System, and The Pyramids at Giza. While many history books for younger readers focus on the political machinations behind such monuments, McNeese concentrates on the actual building and construction, "providing much more depth in his treatment of that era," as Sally Estes noted in a Booklist review of The Panama Canal. In addition to such concerns, McNeese also examines some of the social and political issues, employing illustrations and sidebars with bits of information on topics from feeding the workers to the operation of the locks on the canal. Elaine Lesh Morgan noted in School Library Journal that the author "describes in detail the great effort that was required to complete this project," and praised the book as a "solid choice."
McNeese applies a similar treatment to other wonders of the ancient and not so ancient worlds in The Pyramids at Giza and The Great Wall of China. Cathryn A. Camper, writing in School Library Journal, commented that both titles "are dense with information" and that they answer "many questions of building techniques" that young readers may have. Camper concluded that McNeese's Great Wall of China is a "substantial volume." Reviewing that title, as well as The New York Subway, in Booklist, Frances Bradburn called the entire "Building History" series "fascinating," and concluded that both books "illuminate humankind's problem-solving brilliance and its ability to carry out long-term projects." John Peters remarked in a School Library Journal review of The New York Subway that McNeese presents a "detailed. . .account" of the construction of the New York Subway system, selecting "plenty of incidents, accidents, and anecdotes for human-interest sidebars."
In 1998-99, McNeese edited two volumes of American Indian stories, which were published originally by a British publisher, Cassell Books, on the Blandford imprint. These two hardback volumes were wonderfully illustrated with 24 color plates by Richard Hook. The first volume, Illustrated Myths of Native America: The Northeast, Southeast, Great Lakes, and the Great Plains, published in 1998 was followed the next year by McNeese's second volume, Illustrated Myths of Native America: The Southwest, Western Range, Pacific Northwest and California. Both volumes present, not only interesting stories that reflect the oral traditions of Native Americans, but information relating the anthropological, cultural, and historical frameworks for the eight tribal regions included.
In 2003, both volumes were published as a single volume paperback by New York publisher Four Walls Eight Windows. Today, the single volume is published by Thunder Mouth Press.
Working in the "First Battles" series for Morgan Reynolds publishers in 2002, McNeese has also tackled famous battles in American history in titles such as The Attack on Pearl Harbor and Remember the Maine: The Spanish-American War Begins. In the former title, McNeese offers a useful background to the cultural and societal situation inside Japan on the eve of war with the United States, according to Carolyn Phelan in a Booklist review. Phelan also went on to note that McNeese "describes events clearly, with vivid details that bring historical scenes to life." Heather Hepler, reviewing the same title in Voice of Youth Advocates, wrote that McNeese takes an "in-depth look at the events and their players," providing an "excellent" source of information for young readers. Reviewing Remember the Maine in Booklist, Todd Morning praised McNeese for recounting events in the mysterious sinking of that battleship in Havana harbor "in a detailed yet concise manner that adults as well as young people will find informative." Writing in School Library Journal, William McLoughlin felt that though McNeese's "journalistic prose is occasionally awkward . . . , his research is thorough." McLoughlin further praised this "seamless chronicle," drawn from genuine articles of the day, including newspaper accounts, letters, and eyewitness accounts.
With the 2002 title George W. Bush: First President of the New Century, McNeese provides a "warts and all" look at Bush as a young man, according to Mary R. Hofmann, reviewing the title in School Library Journal. He follows Bush from childhood through the controversial 2000 elections in an account that is "balanced with enough empathy to maintain reader interest and dodge any questions of bias," Hofmann maintained.
In 2002, McNeese began a longstanding writing relationship with Chelsea House Publishers, an imprint of Facts on File. Over the years with CH he has written nearly 60 books in series including "Sieges That Changed the World," "Rivers in American Life and Times," "Rivers of the World," "Colonial Settlements in America," "Great Military Leaders of the 20th Century," "Great Supreme Court Decisions," "Great Hispanic Heritage," "Great Battles Throughout the Ages," "Reform Movements in American History," "Milestones in American History," and "The Civil War: a Nation Divided." McNeese also served as the content editor for several of these series.
Writing for the "Great Hispanic Heritage" series gave McNeese the opportunity to write biographies of important historical, artistic, and literary personalities, including Spanish artists Picasso, Goya, and Dali; literary figures Jorge Luis Borges and Isabel Allende; and "the King of Mambo," Tito Puente.
Although he writes often for younger readers, McNeese published a college textbook titled Political Revolutions of the 18th, 19th, and 20th Centuries in 2005 through the Chelsea Foundation with Facts on File in New York. The text presents the subject of revolution in history and focuses on seven revolutions specifically, including the American, French, those of early 19th Century Europe, Mexican, Russian, Chinese, and Iranian. McNeese's 500-page hardback volume also includes primary source readings relating to each of these revolutions or revolutionary eras.
In 2006, McNeese was invited to appear on the History Channel program, Risk Takers, History Makers: John Wesley Powell and the Grand Canyon. Although serving as the program's historian, McNeese participated in a location film shoot in and around Moab, Utah, where he and a team of experts, including mountaineer Chris Warner and suvival specialist Greg Davenport reenacted some of explorer Powell's exploits. These included scaling 2,000-foot cliff walls in Dead Horse State Park and the Canyonlands, as well as rowing through rapids on the Colorado River in a 19th Century replica boat.
"Shooting on location was terribly exciting for me," says McNeese. "The things we were asked to do by the film's director really stretched me physically. I'm not a mountain climber and I went out to Utah with limited whitewater rafting experience, so, almost at every turn, I was putting myself in situations that were both new and hairraising."
The History Channel program aired in February 2006. A DVD of the film is available on the Amazon website.
McNeese was also invited to serve as a faculty member at the 2006 Tony Hillerman Writers Conference in Albuquerque, where he spoke on American Indians of the Southwest, including those tribes whose members serve as characters in Hillerman's Leaphorn-Chee mystery novels.
McNeese and his wife, Beverly, who teaches English at York College, returned to the Southwest in 2008 with students from the college who were taking a study trip on the American Southwest. Through his previous contact, McNeese had arranged for his students to meet with Hillerman, which proved a highlight for their ten-day study trip.
The McNeeses have sponsored additional study trips through their college, including two along the Lewis and Clark Trail in 2003 and 2005. They are scheduled to take students on a domestic study trip emphasizing the humanities to New England in 2010.
McNeese has recently completed writing a twelve-volume U.S. History series titled "Discovering U.S. History," a chronological sweep of American history beginning with the prehistory of North America through the election of 2008. The series titles included "The New World: Prehistory-1542," "Colonial America: 1543-1763," "Revolutionary America: 1764-1789," "Early national America: 1790-1850," "The Civil War Era: 1851-1865," "The New South and the Old West: 1866-1890," "The Gilded Age and Progressivism: 1891-1913," "World War I and the Roaring Twenties: 1914-1928," "The Great Depression: 1929-1938," "World War II: 1939-1945," "The Cold War and Postwar America: 1946-1963," and "Modern America: 1964-Present."
Professor McNeese says of this new series: "Writing this series for high school students has given me the opportunity to write a third of a million words and tell my version of American history in a narrative sweep of the events, personalities, and ideas that have shaped the United States even before there was a United States."
The "Discovering U.S. History" series is slated for publication in the spring of 2010.
"I hope I continue writing and publishing for many years to come," McNeese told CA. "I would encourage young readers who are interested in writing to read as much as they can. This will help them gain exposure to the various rhythms of the written word. Reading is fundamental to becoming a good writer. Also, patience is always a virtue, especially for writers. Do not expect to make lots of money writing; few of us do. So, if you want to write, put words on paper and keep doing that until you have penned something someone is willing to pay you to publish."
Beyond his book publishing, McNeese is also a contributor to the World Book Encyclopedia, including entries on Marco Polo and H. Norman Schwarzkopf.
Readers and others interested in McNeese's writing, including those who would like to schedule Professor McNeese for a speaking engagement, may contact him at his email address: tdmcneese@york.edu. You may also reach Professor McNeese on the campus of York College, York, Nebraska.
FURTHER READINGS ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
PERIODICALS
*Booklist, November 15, 1993, Carolyn Phelan, review of America's Early Canals and From Trails to Turnpikes, p. 821; August, 1997, Sally Estes, review of The Panama Canal, p. 1895; December 1, 1997, Frances Bradburn, review of The Great Wall of China and The New York Subway System, p. 622; October 1, 2001, Carolyn Phelan, review of The Attack on Pearl Harbor, p. 308; November 1, 2001, Todd Morning, review of Remember the Maine: The Spanish-American Begins, p. 450.
*Horn Book Guide, fall, 1993, Bridget Bennett, review of West by Steamboat, p. 354; spring, 1994, Bridget Bennett, review of From Trails to Turnpikes, p. 135.
*School Library Journal, August, 1993, Joyce Adams Burner, review of America's First Railroads, Clippers and Whaling Ships, and West by Steamboat, p. 178; July, 1997, Elaine Lesh Morgan, review of The Panama Canal, pp. 108-109; August, 1997, Cathryn A. Camper, review of The Great Wall of China and The Pyramids at Giza, p. 172; November, 1997, John Peters, review of The New York Subway System, p. 130; January, 2002, Andrew Medlar, review of The Attack on Pearl Harbor, p. 161; April, 2002, William McLoughlin, review of Remember the Maine, pp. 176-177; April, 2002, Mary R. Hofmann, review of George W. Bush: First President of the New Century, p. 176.
*Voice of Youth Advocates, December, 2001, Heather Hepler, review of The Attack on Pearl Harbor, p. 383.
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