Michael Burns (historian)

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For other persons named Michael Burns, see Michael Burns (disambiguation).

Michael Burns, Ph.D., was born on December 30, 1947, in Mineola, Long Island, New York. He is professor emeritus in history at Mount Holyoke College.

Burns began his career as a child actor, starring on the television program Wagon Train as the character "Barnaby West" in the 1960s. He appeared as a guest star in over 35 television series in the 1960s and 1970s, mostly westerns. He appeared in several films, most notably in That Cold Day in the Park (1969).

In 1973, he decided to devote himself to obtaining a college education. He graduated summa cum laude from UCLA with a B.A. in 1976 and earned his M.A. in European history at the same institution. He entered Yale University in 1977 where he earned his Ph.D. in Modern European history.

He was a professor of history at Mount Holyoke College in Massachusetts from 1980-2002 and is married to Mount Holyoke's sixteenth president Elizabeth Topham Kennan. He presently resides in Kentucky where he and his wife have restored a thoroughbred horse farm on the National Register of Historic Places.