About
Kerry W. Buckley is a writer and historian specializing in American History and a working artist whose paintings have been inspired by the neorealist school of American art. He earned his Ph.D. in history from the University of Massachusetts. He is author of Mechanical Man: John Broadus Watson and the Beginnings of Behaviorism, co-editor, with Christopher Clark, of Letters from an American Utopia: The Stetson family and the Northampton Association, 1843–1847, and editor of A Place Called Paradise: Culture and Community in Northampton, Massachusetts, 1654–2004. He has taught at Wellesley College, the University of Massachusetts, Amherst and Smith College. Chapters from his books have been reprinted in anthologies and his articles and reviews have appeared in: The New England Quarterly, The Journal of American History, The Journal of the History of the Behavioral Sciences, The Social Science Encyclopaedia, The National American Biography, and The Oxford Companion to American History. He has also written for newspapers and periodicals. His work has been featured on the PBS Nova television series and on NPR's Here and Now. He is a Vietnam-era veteran and was awarded the Army Commendation Medal. He is married to Cecelia O. Buckley. They have four children and two grandchildren. Since his retirement from academic life he has renewed a lifelong passion for painting and drawing. He is a Professional Artist Member of the Copley Society of Art in Boston. His paintings are regularly shown in juried exhibits throughout the region. He is a juried artist member of the Cape Cod Art Center where his work has appeared in juried member and open juried exhibits including the annual National and All New England shows. He and his wife live on Cape Cod.
Featured Work
Mechanical Man: John Broadus Watson and the Beginnings of Behaviorism
Mechanical Man is the definitive biography of John B. Watson, one of the most influential psychologists of his time. As the founder of Behaviorism, he exerted a powerful influence on the development of American experimental psychology. After his dramatic dismissal from academic life in 1920 he brought his expertise to Madison Avenue at the height of the Jazz Age. As an advertising executive he popularized psychology and made Behaviorism a household word. Preaching a gospel of achievement through self control, Watson became the first "pop" psychologist for a newly urbanized middle class. This carefully documented study follows the arc of Watson's life as he emerged from an impoverished childhood to become a key figure in the making of modernist America.
