An Interview with Eugene Ludwig

A: Well, at my core, I’m a product of small-town America. I grew up in York, Pennsylvania — a place that, on the surface, had the Norman Rockwell charm of mid-century America. But beneath that, strong undercurrents of bigotry ran deep.

My parents’ experience shaped much of my perspective. My father, a first-generation American, worked his way through medical school and became a small-town doctor — sometimes getting paid in chickens and eggs. My mother, on the other hand, had been a Broadway showgirl. In a small town, the scale of life makes things feel achievable.