Writing history, especially overlooked eras like the Gilded Age or the post-World War I Red Scare, has been a passion of mine for almost four decades. I hope my website will give you the chance to share it.
Enjoy your visit. All the best
–Ken A.
Ken Ackerman, a writer and attorney in Washington, D.C. since the 1970s, is a long-time veteran of senior posts both in government and private law. As a writer, Ken has authored dozens of articles and posts along with five major books of Americana:
Click here for a full list of Ken’s publications. Over the years, he has also expanded his writing to include a history blog, Viral History, and a small publishing house called Viral History Press.
When not writing, Ken practices law in Washington at Olsson Frank Weeda Terman Matz PC (OFW Law) specializing in agriculture risk management. Along the way, he served as legal counsel to two US Senate committees: Governmental Affairs (1975-1981) under then-Senator Charles H. Percy (R-Ill.), and Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry (1988-1993) under its then-Chairmen Senator Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.). During the administration of President Bill Clinton, he headed the U.S. Agriculture Department’s Federal Crop Insurance Corporation (1993-2001). Earlier, he held various legal positions at the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission.
During his varied career, Ken has testified before dozens of Congressional hearings, investigated issues ranging from the 1979-80 silver corner to the 1987 stock crash, and developed legislation on topics from budget reconciliation to farm policy to electronic eavesdropping to civil service reform to financial market oversight. He has appeared often before Congress, the media, and public groups, including farmer town meetings in over 20 states and government officials in London, Warsaw, Vienna, Tel Aviv, and Ramallah, PNA.
Ken was profiled in Government Executive Magazine in 1997 and included by National Journal that year in its “Washington 100” list of top Federal decision-makers. He teaches seminars for TheCapitol.Net (now Sunwater Institute) and The Writers Center in Bethesda, Maryland, serves on the boards of the Writers Center and the Albany Museum of Political Corruption, and was an original board member of the Washington Independent Review of Books. He enjoys bike riding, travel, and, until recently, scuba diving as a PADI-certified divemaster.
A native of Albany, New York, and a graduate of Brown University (1973) and the Georgetown University Law Center (1976), Ken lives with his wife Karen in Falls Church, Virginia.
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