Dr. Robert Fleegler is a History Professor in the Department of History at the University of Mississippi.
Research Interests
Dr. Robert Fleegler is a professor of United States History, and his research focuses on attitudes toward immigration as well as politics in 20th-century America. Dr. Fleegler is currently researching the cultural and political history of smoking in the United States since the publication of the Surgeon General’s landmark report on the health hazards of smoking in 1964.
Biography
Dr. Fleegler has a B.A. from Swarthmore College and a Ph.D. from Brown University. He has taught at the university since 2006. The American Library Association named his first book, Ellis Island Nation: Immigration Policy and American Identity in the Twentieth Century, an Outstanding Academic Title for 2013. Professor Fleegler has also published journal articles, and the Mississippi Historical Society awarded his piece, “Theodore Bilbo and the Decline of Public Racism, 1938-1947,” the Willie Halsell Prize for the best article in the Journal of Mississippi History for 2006. He has also written extensively in the Washington Post’s Made by History series. The University of North Carolina Press published his second book, Bitter Campaign: How the 1988 Election Set the Stage for 21st Century Politics, in 2023.
His first book, Ellis Island Nation: Immigration Policy and American Identity in the Twentieth Century, was published by the University of Pennsylvania Press in 2013. Drawing on sources as diverse as World War II films, records of Senate subcommittee hearings, and anti-Communist propaganda, Ellis Island Nation describes how the eastern and southern European immigrants who entered the country through Ellis Island gained greater acceptance between the passage of immigration restriction legislation in 1924 and the liberalization of the immigration laws in 1965. He shows how the ideology he calls “contributionism” eventually shifted the focus of the immigration debate from assimilation to a Cold War celebration of ethnic diversity and its benefits—helping to ease the passage of 1960s immigration laws that expanded the pool of legal immigrants and setting the stage for the identity politics of the 1970s and 1980s. Ellis Island Nation provides a historical perspective on recent discussions of multiculturalism and the exclusion of groups that have arrived since the liberalization of immigrant laws.
Fleegler’s second book, Brutal Campaign: How the 1988 Election Set the Stage for 21st Century Politics, was published by University of North Carolina Press in 2023. Though it has been largely forgotten over the last three decades, Brutal Campaign shows how the 1988 election between Vice President George H. W. Bush and Massachusetts Governor Michael Dukakis witnessed the beginning of many important trends that still shape our politics today. Among other things, the race featured the beginning of modern political sex scandals, the first serious African American presidential candidate, as well as the national political debuts of Joe Biden, Bill Clinton, and Donald Trump. The contest also illustrated the tactics and issues which allowed the Republican Party to win five of six presidential elections from 1968 to 1988. Finally, it revealed how late 20th century politics differed from early 21st century politics as candidates shifted from pursuing swing voters using television ads in the late 1980s to concentrating on motivating their respective bases through the Internet and social media in the early 2020s.
Publications
Articles
“‘Forget All Differences until the Forces of Freedom are Triumphant’: The World War II-Era Quest for Ethnic and Religious Tolerance,” Journal of American Ethnic History, Winter 2008.Reprinted in Immigrant Identity and the Politics of Citizenship, ed. John Buckowczyk, (Illinois, 2016)
“Theodore Bilbo and the Decline of Public Racism, 1938-1947,” Journal of Mississippi History, Spring 2006
Books
Brutal Campaign: How the 1988 Election Set the Stage for 21st Century American Politics (UNC, 2023)
Ellis Island Nation: Immigration Policy and American Identity in the 20th Century (Penn, 2013)
Courses Taught
- HST 131 Intro to US History since 1877
- HST 405 US- Nation Redefined, 1877-1918
- HST 406 US- WW1 to WWII, 1914-1945
- HST 408 US - World War II to Watergate, 1945-74
- HST 409 US History since 1974
- HST 415 African American History since 1865
- HST 452 The History of Mississippi
- HST 474 The Vietnam War
Education
M.A. History, Brown University (2000)
Ph.D. History, Brown University (2005)