He received a PhD in history from Princeton University and has taught at Columbia University and Florida State University. He studies the history of authorship and publishing, with a particular interest in newspapers, and is currently working on a book about the history of copyright in journalism. This research has been supported by residential fellowships at the New York Public Library, the Library Company of Philadelphia, the American Antiquarian Society (NEH Fellow spring 2015), and the Library of Congress (Kluge Fellow 2015-2016).