Author Matthew Hurff was raised in the Philadelphia area, where a strong public school education developed and strengthened his natural passion for history. After completing undergraduate studies in art and architectural history at Wesleyan University in 1994, he went on to Harvard, where he received a Master of Architecture degree in 1998. He currently practices architecture in Saratoga Springs, New York.

    For Matthew, writing history and designing buildings are closely related processes. As he explains, "History and architecture are both really about structure and hierarchy. The crucial act is deciding which elements are important, and then defining their relationships between one and another."

    "The conclusions that I draw in the book are, in effect, designs; each is one of many possible solutions to the challenge of interpreting the available information. As interesting as the facts are in and of themselves, what really matters is the way the text layers those facts to tell a story. Through that story, the book arranges the facts into a tool—a tool by which the reader may come to further understand the structure of the human experience."