Back in the Day: The Education of an Oklahoma Boy (A Memoir)

BACK IN THE DAY is the autobiography of Kenneth R. Young, a distinguished American scholar of Southeast Asia born in Oklahoma at the end of the Great Depression. The book details Young's early life in small-town Oklahoma and midcentury Los Angeles and continues his story through the present day.

Young's mother's family were "Okies," poor dirt farmers who barely survived each harvest, while his father worked ten hours a day, six days a week as a grocery clerk making $12 a week, scarcely enough for a man with two young children. As a little boy Young learned two hard lessons that guided him over the course of his life: (1) he was not the center of the universe; and (2) he would have to take care of himself, since no one else would.

Despite unexpectedly becoming a father at age twenty and numerous family difficulties, including a deeply contentious relationship with his father, Young obtained a PhD from New York University in 1970, when he was thirty years old, achieving his lifelong dream. A working-class son through and through, he earned the degree without the help of family, mentors, scholarships, or student loans. To make ends meet during his studies he worked full-time as a shoe salesman, stencil cutter, and college lecturer.

For thirty-one years Young taught courses on U.S. diplomacy in East and Southeast Asia (including Vietnam, China, Burma, Indonesia, and the Philippines) at Western Connecticut University. In 1979 he received a Fulbright scholarship to the Philippines, and over the years he wrote many scholarly articles on the region. The General's General, his groundbreaking 1994 biography of Lt. General Arthur MacArthur, Douglas's father, won several awards and was the basis for a PBS documentary. After Young retired, he self-published a novel, Twice Honored, about a US military officer who won two Congressional Medals of Honor for his bravery during an uprising in the Philippines.

With BACK IN THE DAY, Young has turned his scholarly eye to an even more familiar topic: his own life.