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Brian Regal

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Brian Regal
NationalityAmerican
OccupationHistorian
TitleAssociate Professor for the History of Science, Technology and Medicine
Board member ofEditorial Board, Endeavour
Academic background
ThesisTerrible Monkeys: Henry Fairfield Osborn, Race, and the Search for the Origins of Man (2001)
Academic work
DisciplineHistory
Sub-disciplineHistory of science
Notable worksPseudoscience: A Critical Encyclopedia
Websitesites.google.com/a/kean.edu/brian-regal-phd/Home

Brian Regal is an American historian of science, skeptic and writer. He is an associate professor of the history of science at Kean University in New Jersey.[1][2]

Regal is the author of an encyclopedia of pseudoscience, as well as Searching for Sasquatch: Crackpots, Eggheads and Cryptozoology, a scholarly study on cryptozoology.[3][4] He has also written on the history of the Jersey Devil.[5]

Early life

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Regal grew up in Newark's Ironbound neighborhood, in a Catholic family. He developed an early interest for science and the mysterious, which he attributes to television series such as Jonny Quest and later In Search of....[6]

Discouraged from pursuing higher education by a high school guidance counselor ("kids like you don't go to college"), Regal joined the armed forces, serving as a tank commander.[7]

Academic career

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Going to college after his military career, he graduated with a B.A. in History from Kean University in 1995, then a M.A. in American History and Literature at Drew University (1996) and a Doctorate in Modern History and Literature from Drew University (2001). He teaches at Kean University, where he holds the title of Associate Professor for the History of Science, Technology and Medicine.[8]

Regal has long been interested on how theories of human evolution have been received by the public and by religious authorities. His first two books, Henry Fairfield Osborn: Race and the Search for the Origins of Man and Human Evolution: A Guide to the Debates, explore that theme.[9]

In 2005, he realized that Grover Krantz's estate donated his notes and papers to the Smithsonian Institution after his death in 2002, where they remained unread. Within the collection, Regal found a significant amount of source documents on the founding of American cryptozoology. Those documents were the starting point for The Secret History of the Jersey Devil.[10]

As of 2021, he was working on a book about various alternative theories of Europeans coming to North America before Christopher Columbus and how those theories relate to the sociopolitical context of the period when they appear.[6][8][10]

He is a member of the history journal Endeavour.[11]

Publications

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Books

  • Regal, Brian (2022). The Battle over America's Origin Story: Legends, Amateurs, and Professional Historiographers. Palgrave Macmillan Cham. ISBN 978-3030995379.[12]
  • Regal, Brian; Esposito, Frank J. (2018). The Secret History of the Jersey Devil: How Quakers, Hucksters, and Benjamin Franklin Created a Monster. Johns Hopkins University Press. ISBN 978-1421424897.[13]
  • Regal, Brian (2011). Searching for Sasquatch: Crackpots, Eggheads, and Cryptozoology. Palgrave Macmillan US. ISBN 978-0230111479.
  • Regal, Brian (2009). Pseudoscience: A Critical Encyclopedia. Greenwood. ISBN 978-0313355073.
  • Regal, Brian (2007). Icons of Evolution: An Encyclopedia of People, Evidence, and Controversies. Greenwood. ISBN 978-0313339110.
  • Regal, Brian (2005). Radio: The Life Story of a Technology. Greenwood. ISBN 978-0313331671.
  • Regal, Brian (2004). Human Evolution: A Guide to the Debates. ABC-CLIO. ISBN 978-1851094189.
  • Regal, Brian (2002). Henry Fairfield Osborn: Race and the Search for the Origins of Man. Routledge. ISBN 978-0754605874.

Selected Papers

References

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  1. ^ "Brian Regal". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 25 July 2021. Retrieved 25 July 2021.
  2. ^ "History of the Jersey Devil". MonsterTalk. Archived from the original on 25 July 2021. Retrieved 25 July 2021.
  3. ^ Normandin, Sebastian. (2012). Searching for Sasquatch: Crackpots, Eggheads, and Cryptozoology by Brian Regal. The British Journal for the History of Science. Vol. 45, No. 4, Special Issue: British Nuclear Culture. pp. 699-700.
  4. ^ Ritvo, Harriet. (2015). Brian Regal. Searching for Sasquatch: Crackpots, Eggheads, and Cryptozoology. The American Historical Review 120 (2): 586-587.
  5. ^ Zautyk, Karen (1 May 2013). "The Devil's in the details". The Observer. Archived from the original on 5 May 2016. Retrieved 25 July 2021.
  6. ^ a b Celestia Ward, Pascual Romero, Benjamin Radford (23 July 2021). "Episode 153 - Brian Regal Talks Pseudoscience and Pseudohistory". Squaring the Strange (Podcast). Two Heads Studio. 28:25 minutes in. Retrieved 25 July 2021.{{cite podcast}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  7. ^ Regal, Brian (23 January 2021). "How I learned how to survive the end of the world". NJ.com. Archived from the original on 25 January 2021. Retrieved 25 July 2021.
  8. ^ a b "Brian Regal, Ph.D." Kean University. Archived from the original on 18 January 2021. Retrieved 25 July 2021.
  9. ^ Regal, Brian. "Brian Regal, PhD". Kean Google site. Archived from the original on 31 October 2020. Retrieved 25 July 2021.
  10. ^ a b Ashton Macaulay (30 October 2019). "Writing the Book on the Jersey Devil - Dr. Brian Regal Interview". Cryptids Decrypted (Podcast). Retrieved 25 July 2021.
  11. ^ "Editorial Board". Endeavour. Archived from the original on 26 July 2020. Retrieved 26 July 2021.
  12. ^ Regal, Brian (2022). The Battle over America's Origin Story. Springer Nature Switzerland AG. doi:10.1007/978-3-030-99538-6. ISBN 978-3-030-99537-9. S2CID 248613011. Retrieved 28 August 2022.
  13. ^ "New and Notable". Skeptical Inquirer. 42 (4). Committee for Skeptical Inquirer: 61. 2018.
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