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Professional Information
Samuel Brenner, B.A., A.M., A.M., J.D., Ph.D.
Admitted to Practice: California, (Massachusetts (Pending 2010)), U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit
Sam received his J.D. from The University
of Michigan Law School and his Ph.D. from the
Department of
History at Brown University, where he studied modern United States
history, United States foreign policy, and twentieth-century
American-Russian/Soviet relations. Sam's dissertation, which he
wrote under the direction of
James
T. Patterson (with
Gordon S. Wood and
Abbott Gleason
as readers), is entitled Shouting At the Rain: The
Voices and Ideas of Right-Wing Anti-Communist Americanists in the Era of Modern
American Conservatism, 1950-1974. It is focused on the growth, development,
and messages of
ultra-Conservative anti-communist conspiracist (or "Americanist") organizations
such as the John Birch Society and the Christian Anti-Communism Crusade and
individuals such as Robert Welch, Dan Smoot, Revilo P. Oliver, Westbrook Pegler,
Clarence Manion, Fred Schwarz, and Edwin A. Walker. Although he studies the far right,
Sam
is neither a member of the John Birch Society nor a conservative. Sam
holds a B.A. from The University of Michigan, Ann Arbor,
(where he first obtained lots of Michigan clothing, learned how to sing
Hail to the Victors, and picked up the habit of saying "Go Blue!" at
random intervals) with dual concentrations in History and Philosophy
(2000), an A.M. (Master of Arts) in History from
Brown University (2001), and a second A.M. (in Political Science)
from Brown University (2003).
As a law student at Michigan, Sam taught sections of Professor H. Don Cameron's "Great Books" courses for first-year students in the Honors Program, as well as a reading seminar for students preparing for the joint University of Michigan-University of Wisconsin "Honors In Florence" program. He was also an Associate Justice of the Central Student Judiciary of the Michigan Student Assembly, an Academic Advisor for the University of Michigan Honors Program, an Honors Fellow, and law student representative to the Law School Academic Standards Committee. From 2007 through 2009 Sam served as an editor of the Michigan Law Review, ultimately serving as a Note Editor on the editorial board of the MLR's Volume 107, and publishing his own note on the impact and response to the Supreme Court's (or Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes') "anti-Democratic" 1903 decision in Giles v. Harris.
At Brown, Sam fenced with the Brown Fencing Team, wrote a regular column for the Brown Daily Herald, served as an officer of the Brown University Chorus, with which he toured Costa Rica and in which he met his wife, Claudia Arno, and designed and published the web site for the Brown History Graduate Student Association (HGSA). Sam also served as both secretary and co-president of the Brown University Graduate Student Council (GSC) and served on the Faculty Committee on Student Life, the Brown College Curriculum Council, the Brown University Independent Concentration Committee, and the Brown University Curriculum Committee. Sam worked as a Teaching Assistant for Professors James Patterson, Gordon Wood, Charles Neu, and Omer Bartov; between 2003 and 2005 he taught History 141 (U.S. to 1877) and History 142 (U.S. from 1877) at the University of Rhode Island in Kingston, Rhode Island and Providence, Rhode Island.
While in graduate and law schools Sam worked for Ropes & Gray LLP, The Princeton Review of Rhode Island, Fidelity Investments, and the National Student Leadership Conference; after his first year of law school, he interned for the Honorable Kermit Lipez of the United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit. From 2009-2010 he clerked for the Hon. David W. McKeague of the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit in Lansing, Michigan; from 2010-2011 he is clerking for the United States Court of Appeals in Pasadena, California.
Sam has been interviewed on NPR and has published four edited high-school/early college history books through Greenhaven Press. He has also published a Note in the Michigan Law Review and an article in the Santa Clara Law Review, and has an article forthcoming in the Military Law Review on congressional oversight of war crimes inquiries in the military. Sam is currently working on several scholarly articles, including: Shifting Out of Neutral: Federal Courts and the First Amendment Treatment of the Ku Klux Klan and In Good Times and In Bad: The Status and Import of Spousal Testimonial Privileges in Cases of Alternative Marriage. Sam can be reached by email at sbrenner at umich.edu or by phone at (401) 339-1546; (as you know, since you are here) he maintains a modestly-named web site at www.samuelbrenner.com.
Selected Previous Courses and Syllabi:
History of the United States through 1877
History of the United States, 1877 - Today's Headlines
Selected Publications (see Papers/Publications)