Western Rivermen, 1763-1861 by Michael Allen

'Most kids go through a little magic phase, but I stuck with it,' he says.

He pursued it until he had mastered some tricks.

My tricks aren't that good.'Īllen says he, like other children, became interested in magic around age 9. 'I'm not a real great magician,' he says. He juggles, tumbles and performs simple tricks that are very popular with children-when they work. His other hobby, magic, takes him to children's shows, UWT events and other venues. He is currently working on books about the Confederation Congress and the Ellensburg Rodeo. In 2004, he published the acclaimed A Patriot's History of the United States: From Columbus' Great Discovery to the War on Terror with co-author Larry Schweikart. His first book, Western Rivermen, 1763-1861: Ohio and Mississippi Boatmen and the Myth of the Alligator Horse, drew on his experience on the Mississippi River. He wrote about rodeos in a recent book, Rodeo Cowboys in the North American Imagination, and has also authored books about Western history. A fan of the Ellensburg Rodeo, he founded the Ellensburg Rodeo Hall of Fame Association and hopes to establish a rodeo museum in Ellensburg. They all have a theme or a thesis, but they're stories.'Īllen has a fascinating history himself, with experience ranging from fighting in Vietnam to working on Mississippi tugboats. 'It's really an honor to be able to get up and tell stories for a living,' he says. Teaching history, he says, is really just a matter of telling stories. Disney movies from the 1950s-such as Davy Crockett-piqued his interest in the Old West and the American Revolution. 'His style of teaching made me fall in love with history again.'Īllen, a native of Ellensburg, discovered early in life that he loved history. 'Even though he has taught this subject time and time again, his enthusiasm for it is infectious, like a good storyteller who cannot wait to get to the really good parts of the tale,' says Mark Dodson, a graduate student at UWT who took Allen's American history course. It's a teaching style that Allen calls 'lively.' His students call it refreshing. During magic shows, his energy brings a smile to everyone who watches-and in the classroom, that same energy sparks a hunger for history among his students. His act is popular at UWT events, where he twists long balloons into animals and pulls dollar coins from the ears of students. Nearly everyone at UW Tacoma knows that Allen-a seemingly mild-mannered history professor in the interdisciplinary arts and sciences program-occasionally dons a blue sequined vest and black top hat to become Mike the Magician, purveyor of tricks that mystify and delight. The problem is, it's not really a secret. Professor Mike Allen has a secret identity.

Western Rivermen, 1763-1861 by Michael Allen