The Authors: J. Michael Martinez currently works as an environmental/governmental affairs representative for a privately held Fortune 400 plastics manufacturing company. He also serves as a part-time political science instructor at Kennesaw State University in Georgia. A member of the bar in Georgia and South Carolina, Martinez holds a B.A. in philosophy and political science from Furman University, a J.D. from Emory University, an M.P.A. from the University of Georgia, an M.S. from Georgia Institute of Technology, and a Ph.D. from Georgia State University. He is the author of several books and articles, including Confederate Symbols in the Contemporary South (with William D. Richardson and Ronald McNinch-Su, eds.) (2000).
William D. Richardson is the Odeen-Swanson Distinguished Professor of Political Science, Chair of the Department of Political Science, and Director of the W. O. Farber Center for Civic Leadership at the University of South Dakota. In 2005-2006, he was an American Council on Education Fellow at the New College of Florida, the state's highly acclaimed public honors college. He received his Ph.D. in political science from the State University of New York at Buffalo. His articles on aspects of American government, political thought, and ethics have appeared in numerous journals and books, including Administration and Society, Public Administration Review, Polity, Interpretation, and Public Voices. His books include The Leviathan's Choice: The Death Penalty in the Twenty-first Century (with Brandon Hornsby and J. Michael Martinez, eds.) (2002); Confederate Symbols in the Contemporary South (with J. Michael Martinez and Ronald McNinch-Su, eds.) (2000); Ethics and Character: The Pursuit of Democratic Virtues (with J. Michael Martinez and Kerry Stewart, eds.) (1999); Democracy, Bureaucracy, and Character: Founding Thought (1997); and Melville's 'Benito Cereno': An Interpretation with Annotated Text and Concordance (1987).