Written by Alec Presley

History Professor David Goldberg has only been a Drury for a semester and a month, but he’s already liking it. “I was shocked by the diversity of students, the backgrounds, the experience, and the academic rigor of their performance. The writing, the participation.” Goldberg also likes his colleagues. “It’s a really tight-knit community, and building, and I work with some really great people that makes it easy to teach.”

Goldberg originally comes the North East, specifically Maryland and New Jersey. He did his undergraduate work at Elizabethtown College, a small school Goldberg describes as “a lot like Drury.” While there Goldberg played baseball. Goldberg says he’s still a diehard fan of the Oriels and Ravens. After graduating in 2005, he went to Villanova for his Master’s Degree. After that he got his Ph.D. at West Virginia. This was also where he began teaching, eventually moving on to the University of Pittsburgh, and then Drury. Goldberg choses to come to Drury because “in many ways it reflected the learning experience I had at a small liberal arts college, and I wanted to give that back to students.” Goldberg specializes in African American and Civil Rights history.

If you walk into Goldberg’s office, you won’t be blown away by the decoration, but what is there is telling. He book shelves are filled, as is the case for most professors. On his desk is a baseball, signed by two college baseball players who attended one of the earliest classes he taught. On the window seal is a Fredbird he got at a Springfield Cardinals game shortly after moving to town.

What immediately catches you eye, however, is the record player. The default record on the player is Michael Jackson’s “Thriller,” Goldberg’s prize record. Below the record player, a portion of Goldberg’s collection is stored – he claims to have quite a few more back home. Goldberg describes himself as a classic rock guy, which a quick look over his records confirms. He says the record player was a gift he got in college, and it’s been easy to his collection because he’s always living in college towns with good record stores.

The other thing that stands out is the framed poster for “The Retreat of Reconstruction: Race, Leisure, and the Politics of Segregation at the New Jersey Shore,” which Goldberg got published this past November. “It looks at the origins of segregation at the Jersey store, and how African Americans started, really one of the first successful civil rights movements.” Goldberg goes on to say that it best can be summed as “how [Civil Rights advocates] won early on, and how white business owners and policy makers were able to neutralize those campaigns.” Goldberg actually started doing work on the book a decade ago as a Masters student while taking a class on the Civil War and Reconstruction.

Besides loving Drury, Goldberg also has taken a liking to Springfield. “I live in this apartment downtown in the Heers building, right on the square. And seeing the revitalization of downtown, and the eclectic social life, has been the most appealing part of living here, that there is that great work/life balance.” Goldberg said he thought everyone should go out and experience, “the nightlife, the cultural attractions, something.” The only downside for Goldberg is that he has to do the long-distance relationship with someone in Florida. “Fortunately Springfield has a good airport,” he added though.

Right now Goldberg is active in the history club. For the future Goldberg hopes “to really establish myself as a staple of the history department and campus, and to be active in the social life.”