Postmonitions of a Peripatetic Professor

Postmonitions of a Peripatetic Professor describes the lucky journey of Peter Rose, an octogenarian sociologist, ethnographer, writer, teacher and world traveler. In the pages of this colorful memoir, the author comments on six decades of academic life in the U.S. and abroad, his work as researcher, editor and consultant, his excursions as a travel journalist, and some intimate portraits of those he met along the way.

With a foreword by the author’s former Smith College student, playwright and novelist Andrea Hairston, the narrative is enriched by occasional extracts from his earlier writings in essays, stories, reviews, poems, and books, including They and We, The Subject is Race, The Ghetto and Beyond, Strangers in Their Midst, Americans from Africa, Mainstream and Margins, Tempest-Tost, Guest Appearances, The Dispossessed and With Few Reservations.


Peter Rose is Sophia Smith Professor Emeritus and Senior Fellow of the Kahn Liberal Arts Institute at Smith College. He and his wife, Hedy, live in Northampton and Wellfleet, Massachusetts.