About the Author

Born in Indianapolis, Frederic W. Lieber has Indiana roots. His great grandfather Richard Lieber founded the Indiana State Park system in 1916. His grandfather Clarence Efroymson was a freshman at IU in 1914, and in 1985 IU President John Ryan conferred an honorary degree on him. Lieber’s great uncle Lander MacClintock was professor of French and Italian at IU from 1920 to 1960. His family created the Frederic Bachman Lieber and Herman Frederic Lieber teaching awards at IU in the 1950s. He attended Shortridge High School in Indianapolis, the state’s first free public high school.

Graduate of Brown University, Lieber received his doctorate from IU’s Department of Counseling and Educational Psychology in 1995. He served as visiting assistant professor while working as a psychotherapist in private practice. He coordinated elementary teacher education in the School of Education and taught counseling, classroom management, history of psychology, and social psychology. For 12 years he taught history of ideas for Hutton Honors College. He is a poet and intellectual historian. He lives in Bloomington, writing a history of empathy.