As the main adviser on my dissertation, Josh Brown was and continues to be an important figure in the development of my own thoughts and ideas about American history. Active in the Vietnam antiwar movement of the 1960s and 1970s, Josh's vision of the historical discipline's social and political value is in part drawn from his experiences during that tumultuous era. We sat down to a great conversation that touches on his father's unique history in World War II, the violence he witnessed on the streets of Chicago in 1968, and how he eventually became drawn to the radical brand of social history practiced by legendary historian Herbert Gutman.