Dr. Robert Fleegler is a Professor of History 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.
Publications
How the 1988 Election Set the Stage for 21st Century Politics
From the publisher:
At 8:00 p.m. eastern standard time on election night 1988, NBC news anchor Tom Brokaw informed the country that they would soon know more about the outcome of “one of the longest, bloodiest presidential campaigns that anyone can remember.” It was a landslide victory for George H. W. Bush over Michael Dukakis, and yet Bush would serve only one term, forever overshadowed in history by the man who made him vice president, by the man who defeated him, and even by his own son. The 1988 presidential race quickly receded into history, but it was marked by the beginning of the modern political sex scandals, the first major African American presidential candidacy, the growing power of the religious right, and other key trends that came to define the elections that followed. Bush’s campaign tactics clearly illustrated the strategies and issues that allowed Republicans to control the White House for most of the 1970s and 1980s, and the election set the stage for the national political advent of both Joe Biden and Donald Trump.
Selected Book(s):
Ellis Island Nation: Immigration Policy and American Identity in the 20th Century (Penn, 2013)
Selected Article(s):
“‘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
Courses Taught
- HIST 1310 Intro to US History Since 1877
- HiST 4050 US: Nation Redefined, 1877-1918
- HiST 4060 US: WW1 to WWII, 1914-1945
- HiST 4080 US: World War II to Watergate, 1945-74
- HiST 4090 US History Since 1974
- HIST 4150 African American History Since 1865
- HIST 4520 The History of Mississippi
- HIST 4740 The Vietnam War
Education
M.A. History, Brown University (2000)
Ph.D. History, Brown University (2005)
Recognitions
- Outstanding Academic Title, American Library Association, 2013