Kevin Mattson

Kevin Mattson is Connor Study Professor of Contemporary History at Ohio University and serves as a faculty associate of the Contemporary History Institute. His work explores the broad intersections between ideas and politics in 20th-Century America. He is author of numerous books, including What the Heck Are You Up To, Mr. President?": Jimmy Carter, America's "Malaise," and the Speech that Should Have Changed the Country (2009); Rebels All!: A Short History of the Conservative Mind in Postwar America (2008), winner of a Choice "Outstanding Academic Title" Award; Upton Sinclair and the Other American Century (2006); When America Was Great: The Fighting Faith of Postwar Liberalism (2004, 1st edition, 2006, 2ndedition); Intellectuals in Action: The Origins of the New Left and Radical Liberalism, 1945-1970 (2002); and Creating a Democratic Public: The Struggle for Urban Participatory Democracy During the Progressive Era (1998). Additionally, he is co-editor of Liberalism for a New Century (2007) and Steal This University!: The Rise of the Corporate University and the Academic Labor Movement (2003).

He has written essays on a variety of topics for the New York Times Book Review, The Washington Post Book World, The Nation, The American Prospect, Chronicle of Higher Education, and other publications. He has appeared on numerous talk radio shows as well as Fox News, NPR, C-Span Book TV, and the Colbert Report. He is presently an affiliated scholar at the Center for American Progress and active in the American Association of University Professors. He serves on the editorial board of Dissent magazine, and he was voted a "Top Young Historian" by the History News Network.