Ellen Fitzpatrick

Lillian Gollay Knafel Fellow
History
University of New Hampshire

Where We Were in ’68: Presidential Politics and American Ideals

Photo by Tony Rinaldo

Ellen Fitzpatrick is the Carpenter Professor of History at the University of New Hampshire, where she teaches modern American intellectual and political history. She is the author of several books, including History’s Memory: Writing America’s Past, 1880–1980 (Harvard University Press, 2002); America in Modern Times, since 1890, with Alan Brinkley (McGraw-Hill, 1997); Muckraking: Three Landmark Articles (Bedford/St. Martins, 1994); and Endless Crusade: Women Social Scientists and Progressive Reform (Oxford University Press, 1990).

While at the Radcliffe Institute, Fitzpatrick will work on a book that examines the issues and ideas involved in the extraordinary presidential election of 1968. Through research in archives and the voluminous public record of the campaign, she will explore how war, race, justice, and competing visions of America as a nation shaped not only the dynamics and outcome of the 1968 election, but the American political landscape in the ensuing four decades.

Fitzpatrick received her BA in history from Hampshire College (where she was a member of the first graduating class) and her PhD from Brandeis University. She is the recipient of several major grants and fellowships in support of her research, including awards from the Charles Warren Center, the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the Spencer Foundation, and the Ford Foundation.

For more information, read the article "The Election in Historical Context: From 1968 to 2008."