Furlong received the call in November from the publisher. His completion target date is this summer. A member of the faculty since 1967, Furlong said much of the original book developed naturally from his lectures on Indiana history. I had a lot of the material. I just sat down and carefully worked out the details.
Furlong is also director of the master's of liberal studies program.
This spring his task will be to balance the state from the north to the south and not focus too heavily on Indianapolis. He said he will cover the major issues of the revival of the auto industry with Kokomo, Hummer 2 in Mishawaka and the Toyota plant in Princeton. Fifteen years ago, we saw the assembly plants as a dying business. But the plants are a strong example of the perseverance of the industry. Other topics that will be included are the emergence of Carmel, the rebirth of Indianapolis, and the continued influence of the steel industry in Gary and Northern Indiana.