Molly McCarthy earned her Ph.D. in American History at Brandeis University and has an M.S. in journalism from Columbia University. She is completing a book manuscript entitled Accounting for Time: A History of the Daily Diary in America, which is under contract to the University of Chicago Press. McCarthy traces the history of the daily planner – the predecessor of today’s Filofax – from the late eighteenth into the early twentieth century and uses it as a window into understanding how Americans coped with changes such as the shift in time reckoning, the rise of the market, and the move to a more individuated self. Not surprisingly for a native of Buffalo, New York, she has begun research on a new project that explores the history of American weather. When she’s not in the classroom or trawling eBay in search of more diaries, McCarthy is likely walking her demanding Norwich Terrier, Chase.