Living in a media-oriented, Washington D.C. family, going to college in the politically tumultuous 1960s, and developing a deep interest in the American South stimulated Alan Brinkley to become a professor, he said in a speech yesterday.

Brinkley, Dunwalke associate professor of American History who teaches several popular History Department courses, spoke to approximately 25 people at the Boylston Auditorium last night as part of the "What I Teach and Why" lecture series. The series is co-sponsored by the Cambridge Forum and The Harvard Crimson.

Brinkley said the first factor which encouraged him to become a professor was his childhood as part of a public family. As the son of newscaster David Brinkley, "I began as a young boy to attend national political conventions," and he said this made him aware of American politics and culture.

Secondly, although he said he was not a radical, the experience of being a college student in the political 1960s became "a kind of prism" through which his generation now views the world, Brinkley said.

Thirdly, Brinkley cited his study of the American South as a Princeton undergraduate. "It was my interest in the South and my emersion in the history of the South that made me a historian," he said.