 He was educated in the Philadelphia and Memphis public school systems and has a degree in philosophy from Columbia University, a degree in English Literature from Cambridge University, and a doctorate in History from the University of London.During the 1980s he worked in New York City politics and in publishing, where his proudest achievements were drafting the bill to name a portion of Central Park "Strawberry Fields", commissioning of a biography of the anarchist Emma Goldman, and the reissue of the "WPA Guide to New York City".He was also briefly lead singer for the extremely obscure punk band The Editors, though their paying gigs all came after he left the group to study in Britain.