Brian Regal

Brian Regal is an American historian of science, and writer. He is Professor of the history of science at Kean University in New Jersey. He lectures on science and medical history, including Alchemy and the Occult.

Regal is the author of an encyclopedia of pseudoscience, as well as Searching for Sasquatch: Crackpots, Eggheads and Cryptozoology, a scholarly study of cryptozoology. He has also written on the history of the Jersey Devil as well as the discovery of America.

Early life Regal grew up in Newark, New Jersey’s Ironbound neighborhood, in a Catholic family. During the Newark riots of 1968 they relocated across the Passaic River to nearby Kearny, New Jersey. He developed an early interest for science and the mysterious, which he attributes to television series such as Jonny Quest and later In Search of...

Discouraged from pursuing higher education by a high school guidance counselor ("kids like you don't go to college"), Regal joined the armed forces, serving as a tank commander.

Academic career

Going to college after his military career, he graduated with a B.A. in History from Kean University in 1995, then a M.A. in American History and Literature at Drew University (1996), and a Doctorate in Modern History and Literature (specialty in history of science) from Drew (2001). After a seven year stint at the TCI College of Technology in Manhattan, he took a position at Kean University, where he holds the title of Professor for the History of Science, Technology and Medicine.

Regal has long been interested on how theories of human evolution have been received by the public and by religious authorities. His first two books, Henry Fairfield Osborn: Race and the Search for the Origins of Man, and Human Evolution: A Guide to the Debates, explore that theme.

In 2005, Regal realized that Grover Krantz's estate donated his notes and papers to the Smithsonian Institution after his death in 2002, where they remained unread. Within the collection, Regal found a significant amount of source documents on the founding of cryptozoology. Those documents were the starting point for Searching for Sasquatch (2012).

In 2021, he published his book about various alternative theories of early explorers coming to North America before Christopher Columbus and how those theories relate to the sociopolitical context of the period when they appear.

He published his autobiography, The Monster of Newark in 2024.

He is a member of the history journal Endeavour. and has appeared in dozens of podcasts and written many Op Ed pieces.

Publications

Books

Selected papers