Vincent J. Cannato is associate professor of history at the University of Massachusetts, Boston. He received his BA with honors in Political Science from Williams College and his PhD in History from Columbia University. At UMASS-Boston, Prof. Cannato teaches courses on New York City history, Boston history, immigration history, and twentieth-century American history.

He is the author of American Passage: The History of Ellis Island (HarperCollins, 2009); The Ungovernable City: John Lindsay and his Struggle to Save New York (Basic Books, 2001); and co-editor of Living in the Eighties (Oxford University Press, 2009).

Prof. Cannato has written for numerous publications, including The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, The Weekly Standard, and The New Republic. He is a member of the Advisory Council of Historians and Scholars for the American Institute for History Education. He has also received a Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Humanities.

Apart from his academic career, Prof. Cannato was also managing editor of The Public Interest, edited by Irving Kristol and Nathan Glazer; co-producer of the PBS documentary "The First Measured Century"; an aide to former Jersey City Mayor Bret Schundler; and a speechwriter at the Department of Housing and Urban Development.