Stones
(Hansen Publishing Group, 2009)

“Stones is a sneaky and beautiful little masterpiece--sneaky because its disarmingly simple premise of a single day spent visiting graves manages somehow to communicate the endless complexity of one Jewish-American family over the span of nearly a century, and beautiful because Michael Rockland tells his story with a generous, generous heart."
—Tom De Haven, author of It's Superman!

The George Washington Bridge: Poetry in Steel

(Rutgers University Press, 2008)

“Like the magnificent bridge it honors, this book is graceful, intelligently composed, elegant, durable, and solid as steel.”
—Phillip Lopate, author of Waterfront: A Walk Around Manhattan

“The George Washington Bridge:Poetry in Steel is a well-rounded tribute to a national landmark. The author weaves together history, popular culture, behind-the-scene tours, and personal insights in his living portrait of a modern marvel.”—Darl Rastorfer, author of Six Bridges: The Legacy of Othmar H. Ammann

The Jews of New Jersey: A Pictorial History, co-author Patricia M. Ard (Rutgers University Press, 2001)

“Without this great book , we would not know of the Jews who have impacted New Jersey history. I was mesmerized staring into faces long gone and at storefronts where there are now completely different shops. A brilliant pictorial history.”
—Kathleen S., Amazon. com reviewer

“The authors. . . create a vivid portrait of New Jersey Jewish life
through the personal stories of individual citizens. . . accompanied by a wealth of fascinating historic images.”
—Robert Miller, Newsletter, Association of Jewish Libraries

Snowshoeing Through Sewers (Rutgers University Press, 1994)

“Rockland isn’t just ‘observing’ America objectively, he’s in it, all the way, fighting the old clichés with jokes and insights about everything he sees and about himself. It’s a very refreshing book.” —Robert M. Pirsig, author of Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance

“Rockland is one of the most exuberant men on earth and a raconteur of genius, and those qualities enliven every chapter, every sentence, every step of the way. This book is both funny and wise, and a damn good travelogue to boot! One of the most unusual and entertaining books I’ve read in a long, long time.” —Tom De Haven, author of Sunburn Lake

A Bliss Case(Coffee House Press, 1989)

“Absolutely gorgeous stuff. This book’s inherent pull virtually yanked me from page to page. Its unorthodox narrative power got me so hooked that I put aside my own work and finished it in a day.” —Fletcher Knebel, author of Seven Days in May

“This novel is terrific! A funny book with lots of guts and tears as well as the laughs. I’m wild about it.” —Richard Marschall, author of The Cousins

“Mr. Rockland . . . has a light touch and a near perfect ear for humbug. There is a good joke in almost every line, but the humor is not strained in the telling and the pace never lets up.” — Candia McWilliams, review in the Sunday New York Times

A Bliss Case was a New York Times “Notable Book of the Year”

Looking for America on the New Jersey Turnpike, co-author Angus Kress Gillespie(Rutgers University Press, 1989)

“A lively, informative, thoroughly entertaining examination of this most American of highways. . . .Vivid, authentic, and often humorous, while being admirably fair-minded. . . . An original work.” -Edward Allen, New York Times Sunday Book Review

Homes on Wheels (Rutgers University Press, 1980)

”This book is a veritable casebook in applied American Studies. Having hit the road himself, . . . Rockland echoes the ‘I Have Seen America’ documentary expeditions of the 1930s as well as the earlier redemptive journeys of Henry David Thoreau, Walt Whitman, and Huckleberry Finn. His analysis of the tensions between individualism and community reflects Alexis De Tocqueville’s Democracy in America.” —Warren Belasco, in Technology and Culture

Sarmiento’s Travels in the United States in 1847 (Princeton University Press, 1970)

“The spirit . . . is the wine Whitman would uncork eight years later in Leaves of Grass. Sarmiento heard America singing and fell in love with its mass and multitude. . . .The energizing miracle was freedom.” —B. A. Weissberger, Washington Post Book World

“Sarmiento was on to the Americans’ incredible mobility and restlessness, their pragmatic openness to new inventions and new ideas, their ‘uniform decency and general welfare, and to the ambiguous effect of industrialism on morality and the corresponding rise of ‘avarice and fraud.” —A. Alvarez, The Saturday Review

America in the Fifties and Sixties: Julian Marias on the United States (Penn State University Press, 1972), editor, supervisor of translation, and author of introductory essay

The American Jewish Experience in Literature (University of Haifa and the Academy of Jewish Studies Without Walls, 1975)

Que Tiene America de’Americano’ (What’s American About America?) (Taller de Estudios Norteamericanos, University of Leon, Spain), 1992

La Cultura Popular o Por Que Estudiar Basura (Popular Culture: Or Why Study “Trash?” (Taller de Estudios Norteamericanos, University of Leon, Spain), 1996.

• Sarmiento’s Travels in the United States in 1847 (Princeton University Press, 1970) was chosen by Book World (Washington Post) as one of the Fifty Best Books of the Year.
• The novel, A Bliss Case, was a New York Times Notable Book of the Year (CoffeeHouse Press, 1989)
• A co-written book, Looking for America on the New Jersey Turnpike (Rutgers University Press, 1989), was named by the New Jersey State Library as “One of the Ten Best Books Ever Written on New Jersey Or By a New Jerseyan.”

• B.A. in Sociology and English, Hunter College
• M.A. in American Studies, University of Minnesota
• Ph.d. in American Studies, University of Minnesota
• Advanced Studies, Foreign Service Institute, United States Department of State

I have lectured around New Jersey, around the United States and throughout the world. In New Jersey I have lectured regularly for the New Jersey Council for the Humanities. Among the places I have lectured in the United States are Princeton University, Harvard University, The Boston Public Library, The State University of New York’s Museum Studies School, and as keynoter for the annual convention of the National Trust for Historic Preservation.

In recent years I have lectured abroad in the following countries: Argentina, Spain, Uruguay, Italy, Norway, Canada, Japan, Korea, India, Pakistan, Georgia, El Salvador, Venezuela, Peru, Colombia, Israel, Ecuador, and Portugal.

My early career was in the United States diplomatic service as a cultural attache and during that time my Spanish achieved nearly native born status. I lecture regularly in Spanish when that is called for.

My areas of expertise include the following:

• What's American About America?
• Popular Culture: Or Why Study 'Trash'?
• Mobility and Americans
• American Ethnicity
• American Jewish Literature
• Literature and Film: Issues in Adaptation
• American Foreign Policy
• Individualism vs. Communitarianism in American Life
• The United States as Seen From Abroad
• Aspects of New Jersey Life, including: The Image of New Jersey,The Jersey Joke,Adventuring in New Jersey, and The long, Continuing War Between New Jersey and New York City.
• A Writer's Life: Challenges and Benefits of Writing Fiction, Journalism, and Scholarship—sometimes at the same time.

• Rutgers University Award for Distinguished Undergraduate Teaching
• The Warren Susman Award for Distinguished Teaching
• The Mary C. Turpie National American Studies Award for Outstanding Teaching
• The Rutgers College Teacher of the Year Award
• The Scholar-Teacher Award of Rutgers University
• Who’s Who Among American Teachers