Brian McGinty

Brian McGinty is an attorney, writer, and historian with a special interest in American history and law. He is the author of more than a dozen published books and over 200 articles that have appeared in popular magazines and scholarly journals.

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McGinty’s awards include the 2009 Scribes Book Award of the American Society of Legal Writers, issued for John Brown’s Trial; the Book One Arizona designation for 2008 and 2009, issued by the Arizona State Library, for McGinty’s The Oatman Massacre: A Tale of Desert Captivity and Survival; the Editor’s Award for Historical Scholarship issued by the Sonoma County Historical Society for Strong Wine: The Life and Legend of Agoston Haraszthy; and the Excellence in Writing Award issued by the National Historical Society for his article titled “Friend of the Wilderness: John Muir,” which was published in American History Illustrated in July 1977.

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McGinty received an A.B. in American history from the University of California in Berkeley and a J.D. from the same university’s Berkeley Law. He practiced law in trial and appellate courts at the state and federal level while beginning a long career of freelance writing. He has taught political science courses at a California college and been an editor and a writer for a large national legal publisher, where he participated in writing and editing practice books for lawyers all over the country.