Early Years
MacDonald is of German and Scottish ancestry. He was born in Oshkosh, Wisconsin and raised in a traditional Roman Catholic family. His father was a policeman and his mother was a secretary. He went to parochial schools and played basketball in high school. He entered the University of Wisconsin–Madison and became an activist in the anti-war movement from about 1965 to 1975. During this period, he perceived the East Coast Jewish origins of the majority of the movement there (Culture of Critique, p. 104), which motivated his interest in Jewish intellectual movements.
MacDonald became a philosophy major and abandoned leftist radicalism. He embarked on a career as a jazz pianist, but by the late 1970s had abandoned it in favour of academia. While in graduate school, he became attracted to E. O. Wilson's theory of sociobiology.
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“Even today . . . experts, usually male, tell women how to be mothers and warn them that they should not have children if they have any intention of leaving their side in their early years. . . . Children don’t need parents’ full-time attendance or attention at any stage of their development. Many people will help take care of their needs, depending on who their parents are and how they chose to fulfill their roles.”
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