Arthur Goldschmidt is Professor Emeritus of Middle Eastern History at Penn State University, where he taught from 1965 to 2000. He is best known for his introductory book, A Brief History of the Middle East, first published by Westview Press in 1979 and now revised for its ninth edition. Other books written by Modern Egypt include: The Formation of the Nation-State (2nd edition published by Westview in 2004), the second and third editions of the Historical Dictionary of Egypt, and The Biographical Dictionary of Modern Egypt. His most recent book is a book entitled "A Brief History of Egypt", which was published by "Fact on File" in 2008, and it is an adaptation of this publisher's series "Creating the Modern Middle East Series". He also edited a book of specialized articles on aspects of Egypt's history from 1919 to 1952, and wrote an introduction to a set of book chapters published by Westview Press. He chairs a committee to write the history of the International Association of Torch Clubs. In addition, he has written numerous articles and chapters in edited volumes and book reviews. Dr. Goldschmidt received the Middle East Studies Association Mentoring Award in 2000 for his extensive work with alumni and undergraduate teaching assistants at Penn State, as well as for his textbook. He has lived and conducted research in Egypt and many other Middle Eastern countries, with grants from the American Research Center in Egypt, the Social Science Research Council, the National Endowment for the Humanities, and the Fulbright Commission. He was a visiting fellow at Durham University in 1989 and 1990. He received his BA. from Colby College and his graduate degrees from Harvard University. While in retirement, he taught courses for the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute, Elderhostel in Pennsylvania, and the Chattoqua Institute's Special Studies Program.