Burg, David F. 1936–

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Burg, David F. 1936–

(David Frederick Burg)

PERSONAL: Born March 12, 1936, in Plymouth, IN; son of Richard William and Floris Burg; married Helen Rendlesham (a research consultant), September 2, 1961; children: Charles Gilbert, Laura Johnson. Education:DePauw University, B.A., 1958; Washington State University, M.A. (English), 1960; University of Pennsylvania, M.A. (American studies), 1965, Ph.D., 1969; also attended the University of Exeter for one year. Religion: Episcopalian.

ADDRESSES: Home—291 S. Ashland Ave., Lexington, KY 40502.

CAREER: Freelance writer and editor, 1975–; former lecturer in English at Transylvania University and University of Kentucky, Lexington, KY. Member of advisory board for Kentucky Archives of American Art.

MEMBER: University of Kentucky Library Associates.

WRITINGS:

Chicago's White City of 1893, University Press of Kentucky (Lexington, KY), 1976.

The Great Depression: An Eyewitness History, Facts on File (New York, NY), 1996, revised edition, 2005.

Encyclopedia of Student and Youth Movements, Facts on File (New York, NY), 1998.

(With L. Edward Purcell) Almanac of World War I, University Press of Kentucky (Lexington, KY), 1998.

The American Revolution: An Eyewitness History, Facts on File (New York, NY), 2001.

A World History of Tax Rebellions: An Encyclopedia of Tax Rebels, Revolts, and Riots from Antiquity to the Present, Routledge (New York, NY), 2003.

(With Elin Woodger) The 1980s, Facts on File (New York, NY), 2006.

Author of columns in the Lexington Business Review, 1981–, ArtScene, 1982–, and Intercom, 1984–. Contributor to literature and architecture journals.

SIDELIGHTS: David F. Burg is a nonfiction writer and former university English instructor. His titles have focused on American history, featuring topics from the Great Depression to the Revolutionary War, but he has also tackled international topics, as in his 1998 book, Almanac of World War I and his 2003 title, A World History of Tax Rebellions: An Encyclopedia of Tax Rebels, Revolts, and Riots from Antiquity to the Present.

In his 1995 work, The Great Depression: An Eyewitness History, Burg adds to a Facts on File series that "gather excerpts from a variety of primary sources," according to Booklist contributor David Rouse. Such original sources range from contemporary newspaper accounts to diaries and speeches. Historical context is also provided by the addition of events happening at the same time, to create a "sweeping view of the Great Depression," according to Rouse. Reviewing a 2005 revised edition of the same title, a reviewer for Reference & Research Book News declared the work a "well-referenced volume."

Burg details the highlights of the American War for Independence in his The American Revolution: An Eyewitness History, another title in the same Facts on File series. The author employs a similar format for this book as he did for the Great Depression work, incorporating original materials, illustrations, and contemporaneous events to provide "many compelling insights into our history," as School Library Journal contributor Marsha S. Holden attested. Burg moves to an international stage with Almanac of World War I, written with L. Edward Purcell. Here, the authors offer a chronology of the war, numerous illustrations, and seventy-four profiles of important figures involved in the conflict. Mary Ellen Quinn commented in Booklist: "There is really nothing comparable to this volume."

Employing a similar format for his Encyclopedia of Student and Youth Movements, Burg produced a reference book that contains 762 entries, covering youth movements around the world, from China to the United States, and from the Children's Crusade to Hitler Youth. Writing in Reference & User Services Quarterly, Stephen L. Hupp praised this "unique encyclopedia." In his 2004 title, A World History of Tax Rebellions, Burg offers another encyclopedic approach to a topic, covering the effects of taxes on humankind over a four-thousand-year period. A Booklist contributor found this volume "unique with its wide span of nations and times."

Burg once told CA: "I take my inspiration from the simple but profound maxim at the beginning of E.M. Forster's Howard's End: 'Only connect.' The connections that exist—the integration of all knowledge and events—are what intrigues me. I deplore the specialization of knowledge in our time, regarding it as our perhaps ultimate expression of both ignorance and arrogance. Unfortunately, we cannot know everything, cannot make all the connections. But we can at least try."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

American Historical Review, February, 1977, review of Chicago's White City of 1893.

Booklist, December 15, 1995, David Rouse, review of The Great Depression: An Eyewitness History, p. 674, and Hazel Rochman, review of The Great Depression, p. 692; February 1, 1999, Mary Ellen Quinn, review of Almanac of World War I, p. 990; March 1, 2002, Mary Ellen Quinn, review of The American Revolution: An Eyewitness History, p. 1175; May 15, 2004, review of A World History of Tax Rebellions: An Encyclopedia of Tax Rebels, Revolts, and Riots from Antiquity to the Present, p. 1662.

Reference & Research Book News, November, 2005, review of The Great Depression.

Reference & User Services Quarterly, summer, 1999, Stephen L. Hupp, review of Encyclopedia of Student and Youth Movements, p. 413.

School Library Journal, May, 2002, Marsha S. Holden, review of The American Revolution, p. 92.

Virginia Quarterly Review, summer, 1977, review of Chicago's White City of 1893.