Timothy Messer-Kruse has spent his career making historians uncomfortable — on both sides of the political spectrum.
His book on Karl Marx and the American labor movement upset the Old Left. His re-examination of the Haymarket trial — named the Best Book in Labor History — overturned a consensus that labor historians had held for a century. His books on slavery and the founders argued that patriot abolitionism was an expression of white supremacy. He has been profiled in The Atlantic and National Review — not because he plays to both audiences, but because no one can quite place him.
He is Professor of Cultural Studies at Bowling Green State University (Ph.D., University of Wisconsin-Madison). His eight books span American labor history, constitutional origins, slavery and abolition, and the politics of civic memory.
His most recent work, Unpatriotic Civics, is a textbook designed to comply with new state civics mandates without conforming to their intent. It has made him one of the most quoted critics of state-directed civics education in American higher education.
📞 Available for interviews, commentary, and speaking engagements. Contact: tmesser@bgsu.edu