He has published seven monographs, six chapters and over one hundred articles in the areas of German, Croatian, and South Slavic Studies. In addition to some one hundred lectures, symposia, and keynote addresses in Europe, North America and Australia, including the University of Zagreb, Inter-University Centre of Dubrovnik, University of Mostar in Bosnia-Hercegovina, Macquarie University in Sydney, and the University of New South Wales, he wrote, directed and read a weekly radio program broadcast ("Moments in Croatian History") on twenty North American and Austra-lian stations for fifteen years.

McAdams is a member or has been affiliated with the American Association for the Advancement of Slavic Studies, the Association for Croatian Studies, the Croatian Academy of America, El Instituto Croata Latinamericano de Cultura, and other professional and scholarly organizations. He is presently on the Advisory Board of the Unger Scholarship Fund at Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government, and on the Board of Directors of the Croatian Scholarship Fund (HSZ).

There was a time, not so long ago, when expressing the desire that Croatia be free, or identifying one-self as Croatian, could be dangerous, not only in Yugoslavia, but even in the United States. Nevertheless, there was always a small group of activists who kept the dream alive that someday Croatia would be free. Michael McAdams, an American scholar of Croatian studies, was one of these activists who stood before American, Canadian, and Australian audiences for twenty-five years trying to explain why the Croatian people wanted to be free and independent. This effort alone was courageous and commendable, but what makes Professor McAdams so unique is his ancestry - not Croatian, but Scottish and Jewish. On December 19, 1995, Professor McAdams, now Director of the University of San Francisco's Sacramento campus, was presented with the Republic of Croatia's prestigious Danica Order of Marko Marulic. The decoration is named after the 15th century Croatian writer Marko Marulic, called "the father of Croatian literature." Marulic was a great humanist and author of many renowned works, and the order is awarded to Croatian or foreign citizens who distinguish themselves by their efforts in the field of culture.

McAdams was born in 1947 on a California Marine base, the son of a career U.S. Marine Corps officer. His first awareness of Croatia came from his postage stamp collection as a child, in which he studied Croatian landscapes, buildings, and depictions of war. In the spring of 1971, upon completing his military service in the U.S. Marines, McAdams began his study of history at the University of the Pacific. He first became interested in Croatia academically when studying World War II. He says that, "History was much easier twenty-five years ago... this was especially true of the typical American per-spective on history.. .black and white, good and evil." But when he read about the Balkans, he became more and more confused. He found that "every book had different ‘heros' and different ‘villains'," and "there was virtually nothing in the average university library that reflected a positive note about Croatia or the Croatians." The library had only three books about Croatia: Croatia: Land, People and Culture in two volumes, edited by the late Father Francis Eterovich, and Croatian Immigrants in America by George J. Prpic. Both authors were to become his close friends, and Dr. Prpic would later lead McAdams through his Masters in Croatian history at John Carroll University. His research led him to believe that "while not all Croatians supported the World War II Ustashe regime, most supported an independent Croatian State," and he "wondered why Croatia was portrayed in such an evil light." Thus, he explains, "with some degree of naivete, I decided to study Croatia. I did not read Croatian and had never actually met a Croatian. Nonetheless, I set out in search of Croatian history."

His activism began in 1973, when he led Croatian Americans, accuracy in media organizations and political leaders in protesting the inaccuracy of a Reader's Digest article on former Croatian cabinet minister Andrija Artukovic. His extensive research on the case led to his first monograph, Whitepaper on Dr. Andrija Artukovic, published in 1975. Since, he has published seven mono-graphs, six chapters and one hundred and twenty-five articles in the areas of German, Croatian, and South Slavic studies. In addition to some one hundred lectures, symposia, and keynote addresses in North America, Europe, and Australia, for fifteen years he wrote, directed, and read a weekly radio program, "Moments in Croatian History," broadcast on twenty North American and Australian sta-tions.

For twenty years, McAdams wrote letters and articles, trying to help Americans distinguish myth from reality when it came to Croatia and the Croatians. The old myths would not die; they were resurrected and embellished upon by the media. McAdams notes that when Serbia launched its war of aggression against Slovenia. Croatia and Bosnia, "it also launched a full scale war of words, bombarding the world with old myths and new creations. Well-meaning journalists and others fell victim to propaganda while attempting to understand and to justify the war of aggression against Croatia." This is when someone suggested that he write a brief, readable, and easy-to-understand monograph that would respond to the most common myths about Croatia with documented facts. Thus, in the fall of 1992, he published Croatia: Myth and Reality. A second English edition was published in 1994, a Swedish edition in 1995, and McAdams has given permission for German, Spanish and French translations as well. Perhaps the most personally-significant edition of the monograph for McAdams, however, is the one published on May 6, 1993. On that day, he was handed the first five copies of the Croatian edition, printed that morning, as he first set foot on free Croatian soil at Zagreb airport. It was the culmination "of a long journey of many miles and many years."