Robert
S. McElvaine
Elizabeth Chisholm
Professor of Arts & Letters
Chair,
Department of History
Millsaps
College
Department of History 201
Concord Drive
Millsaps College Clinton,
Mississippi 39056
Jackson, Mississippi 39210
601/924-1598
601/974-1291
FAX: 601-974-1324
e-mail: mcelvrs@millsaps.edu Web: http://home.millsaps.edu/mcelvrs/
http://evesseed.net
EDUCATION:
B.A.: Rutgers University (New Brunswick), 1968.
M.A.: SUNY-Binghamton, 1971.
Ph.D.: SUNY-Binghamton, 1974.
Post-Doctoral
Study: University of California
at Berkeley, 1978.
Brown
University, 1980-1981.
PUBLICATIONS:
Books
Grand Theft, Jesus - ChristianityLite, The "Religion" that Has Kidnapped Jesus
(New York: Crown, forthcoming, March 2008).
Encyclopedia of the Great Depression
(editor-in-chief) (New York: Macmillan
Reference USA, 2004).
Franklin Delano
Roosevelt (Washington: Congressional Quarterly Press, 2002).
Eve’s Seed:
Biology, the Sexes and the Course of History (New York:
McGraw-Hill,
2001); Chinese edition, Beijing: Horizon, 2004).
The Depression
and New Deal: A History in Documents (New York: Oxford
University
Press, 2000).
What's Left?—A New
Democratic Vision for America (Holbrook, Mass.:
Adams Publishing, 1996).
Mario Cuomo: A
Biography (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1988).
The End of the
Conservative Era: Liberalism After Reagan (New York:
Arbor House, 1987).
The Great
Depression: America, 1929-1941 (New York: Times Books, 1984;
2nd edition, 1993).
Down and Out in
the Great Depression: Letters from the "Forgotten Man"
(Chapel Hill: University of North
Carolina Press, 1983).
Portions of Books, etc.
“Causes
of the Great Depression,” “Impact of the Great Depression on Gender Roles and
Sexual Relations,” “I Am a Fugitive from
a Chain Gang,” “Little Caesar,” Impact of the Great Depression on Men,”
“Remember My Forgotten Man,” “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs,” “Effects of the
Great Depression on Values,” “The Wizard of Oz,” in Robert S. McElvaine, ed., Encyclopedia of the Great Depression (New York: Macmillan Reference USA, 2004).
“The Great Depression,”
The New Book of Knowledge
(Danbury, Conn.
Scholastic/Grolier, 2002).
“Franklin D.
Roosevelt,” “Harry Hopkins,” and “Bonus Army,” in The
Oxford
Companion to
United States History (New York: Oxford University Press, 2001).
“One
Depression, Two Solutions, 1930-1939,” Essay in Richard Stolley, ed., Life: Our
Century in Pictures (Boston: Little
Brown, 1999).
“They Didn’t
March to Free the Slaves,” in Roy L. Brooks, ed., When Sorry Isn’t
Enough: The
Controversy Over Apologies and Reparations for Human
Injustice (New York: NYU Press, 1999).
“The Great Depression,” Microsoft Encarta Encyclopedia, 1997.
“Mario Cuomo,”
in The Reader's Companion to American History, edited by
Eric Foner and John A. Garraty
(Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1991).
“New Deal
Cultural Programs and the South,” in the Encyclopedia of Southern
Culture, edited by Charles R. Wilson and William Ferris. (Chapel Hill: University of
North Carolina Press, 1989).
Introduction to
a new edition of WPA Federal Writers' Project,
Mississippi: A
Guide to the Magnolia State (Jackson:
University Press of Mississippi, 1988).
“Franklin D.
Roosevelt,” 20,000 word biographical essay for a three-volume work,
The American
Presidents, edited by Frank N. Magill (Pasadena, Calif: Salem Press,
1986).
“Claude Ramsay,
Organized Labor and the Civil Rights Movement in Mississippi,
1959-1966,” in Gary Fink, Leslie Hough and Merl
Reed, eds., Southern Workers and Their Unions, 1880-1972 (Westport,
Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1981).
Articles
and Op Ed Pieces (Partial List):
“An Obama
Presidency for Lincoln’s Two-Hundredth Birthday,” History News Network,
September 25, 2006.
“Jesusless:
The Church of Conservatism,” Sightings,
June 30, 2006.
“Bush Team Doin’ a Heck of a Job,” Clarion-Ledger,
April 26, 2006.
“Remember When?” History News Network, March 27, 2006.
“Mr. Bush—Brought to
the Bar of Poetic Justice,” Chicago
Sun-Times, March 15, 2006.
“‘Morning’ Light
Exposes Bush Lies about Iraq,” Clarion-Ledger,
November 17, 2005.
“FEMA Mess Didn’t Miss
Mississippi,” Baltimore Sun, October 12,
2005.
“O.J., W., ‘Us,’ and
‘Them,’—and Truth,” Chicago Tribune,
October 2, 2005.
“Weather of Mass
Destruction,” Sightings, September
29, 2005.
“Beneficiary of War in Iraq will Really Be Iran,” Clarion-Ledger,
August 11, 2005.
“What If He’s a
Christian Man?” Chicago Tribune,
July 17, 2005.
“Iran Will Emerge
as Clear Victor in U.S. War in Iraq,” Atlanta Journal-Constitution, July 11, 2005.
“Christianity
Doesn’t Include a Free Pass to Sin,” Atlanta Journal-Constitution, July 4, 2005.
“Are We at a Turning Point in History?” History News Network, June 27,
2005.
“Bush Helping
Democrats Find Their Soul,” Clarion-Ledger,
March 1, 2005.
“Woodrow Wilson’s
Burden, Bush’s—And Ours,” History
News Network, February 14, 2005.
“Once Again Republicans Are Running Against the
Sixties,” History News Network, November 1, 2004.
“Republicans Aren’t Even Good for the Rich,” History News Network, November 1, 2004.
“Must We Decide
which Side God Favors to Vote?” Clarion-Ledger
op-ed page, October
28, 2004.
“Does Bush Think He’s Channeling God?” History News Network, October 25,
2004.
“It’s the Illusions About Iraq, Stupid,” History News Network, October 23, 2004.
“The Making of the
Marlboro Man, 2004,” History News
Network, October 21, 2004.
“Can Bush
Out-Hoover Hoover,” History News
Service, October 18, 2004.
“Red State, Blue
State,” Washington Post
“Outlook,” October 10, 2004.
“Bush ‘Imposter’
when it comes to Conservatism,” Clarion-Ledger,
October 7, 2004.
“Bush: Gaining on
Buchanan for Last Place,” History
News Service, September 20, 2004.
“‘Girlie
Men” and the Worldview that has Misshaped History,” Op Ed News, September 9, 2004.
“We’re Being
Fooled by Bush’s ‘Reality,’” Clarion-Ledger
op ed page, September 3, 2004.
“Bush Evading Hard
Issues by Odd Positions,” Clarion-Ledger
op ed page, July 16, 2004.
“Bush Backers Fear
'Truth' in '9/11' Movie,” Clarion-Ledger
op ed page, July 1, 2004.
“Historians v. George W. Bush,” History News Network, May 17,
2004.
“‘C-L’ Coverage of
Kerry Leaves Issues Ignored,” Clarion-Ledger
op ed page, March 11, 2004.
“‘Dean-aholics’ Must See Iowa as Turning Point,” Clarion-Ledger op ed page, January 23, 2004.
“A Big Mississippi Thank Y’all,” Los Angeles Times Op Ed page,
August 15, 2003.
“The Relevance
of Biohistory,” The Chronicle Review Chronicle of
Higher
Education), October 18, 2002.
“A Cloud of
Sexism Over the Church,” Los Angeles Times Op
Ed page,
March 29, 2002.
“Let Eve Take
Her Place at the Table,” Los Angeles Times Op Ed page,
December 20,
2001.
“The Birth of
the Myth that Men are Closer to God,” Washington Post AOutlook,@
November 11,
2001.
“A Second Black
Tuesday,” The Chronicle Review (Chronicle of Higher
Education), September
28, 2001.
“Cloning Aside,
It Still Takes Two to Tango,” Los Angeles Times Op Ed page,
August 16,
2001.
“‘Hooking Up= Makes a
Feminized World More Bound than Ever by Men=s Rules,”
Los Angeles
Times Op Ed page, August 5, 2001.
“For an Old
Flag, A New Rationale,” New York Times Op Ed page, April 21, 2001.
“Read His Lips:
He’s No Wimp the Younger,” Los Angeles Times Op Ed page,
February 21,
2001.
“Hell Hath No
Fury Like a Man Devalued—And Women Pay the Price,”
Los
Angeles Times Op Ed page,
January 10, 2001.
“Democrats May
Inherit a Windfall,” Los Angeles Times Op Ed page, August 27,
2000.
“Lynching a
State=s Reputation,” Washington
Post Op Ed Page, August 22, 2000.
“Washington=s Academy Award
Nominees,” The Nation, March 23, 1998.
“Why Al Gore Is
Such an Easy Target,” Los Angeles Times Op Ed page,
September 17,
1997.
“They Didn’t
March to Free the Slaves,” Los Angeles Times Op Ed page,
July 25, 1997.
“When the Enemy
Is ‘Them,’ Watch Out,” Los Angeles Times Op Ed page,
May 14, 1997.
“Cloning: How
Do We Morally Navigate the Uncharted Future?” Los Angeles
Times, March 5, 1997.
“Blessed Are
Those Whose Charity is Not Plastic,” Los Angeles
Times Op Ed
page, December 20, 1996.
“The Book on
Genesis,” Washington Post “Outlook,” November 3, 1996.
“To Do or Not
Do—That is the Question,” Los Angeles Times Op
Ed page,
October 21,
1996.
“Reclaim the
High Ground of the ’60s,” Los Angeles Times Op Ed page,
August 26,
1996.
“Ghosts,
Goblins and Scary Politicians,” Los Angeles Times Op Ed page,
October 30,
1995.
“Public Enemy
No. 1: Credit Cards,” Los Angeles Times Op Ed page,
September 12,
1995.
“It’s the
Message, Not the Medium,” Los Angeles Times, April 28, 1995.
“Elders is
Subscriber to Newt Age Values,” Los Angeles Times Op Ed page,
December 12,
1994.
“Nattering
Nabobs Are Back—This Time as Republicans,” Los Angeles Times
Op Ed page,
October 17, 1994.
“The Day—and
Night—of the Locust,” Los Angeles Times Op Ed page, June 22,
1994.
“What Ever
Happened to S-x?” Los Angeles Times Op Ed page, July 22, 1993.
“Yours, Mine,
Ours—Taxes Cover All,” Los Angeles Times Op Ed page,
May 2, 1993.
“‘Growing’ the
Economy Is a Fertile Idea,” Wall Street Journal Opinion Page,
February 25,
1993.
“GOP ‘Values'? Read Their Lip-Service,” Los Angeles Times
Op Ed page,
October 12,
1992.
“A Truce for
the Abortion War,” Washington Post “Outlook,” July 5, 1992.
“A Gamble That
Could Work for Clinton,” Los Angeles Times Op Ed page,
April 29, 1992.
“It Ain’t Over Even When It’s Over,” Los Angeles Times
Op Ed page,
January 7,
1992.
“Feminizing
Congress in One Sweep,” Los Angeles Times Op Ed page,
December 22,
1991.
“Don’t Write
Off Democrats Yet,” Atlanta Constitution, April 12, 1991.
“The Tale of
Two Presidents,” Atlanta Constitution, January 20, 1991.
“Cuomo's Hamlet
Act Must End,” Atlanta Constitution, December 2, 1990.
“George Bush as
Teddy Roosevelt,” Atlanta Constitution, September 30, 1990.
“Reverberating
Echoes of the Roaring ’20s,” Baltimore Sun opinion page,
December 29,
1989.
“‘Semibiography’: Political Biography at Mid-Career:
Opportunities and
Pitfalls,” Kennesaw
Review, vol. 2 (Summer 1989), pp. 55-66.
“Vice President
Dan Reagan?” New York Times Op Ed
page, September 14,
1988.
“Art for Our
Sake: The Democratic Vision of the WPA Posters,” Washington
Monthly, May, 1988,
pp. 55-57.
“Think of
Afghanistan as a Soviet ‘Spain,’” New York Times Op Ed page,
May 14, 1988.
“In ’88: Gunning for the Early Bird,” New York
Times Op Ed page,
February 7,
1988.
“The Kennedy
Complex,” New York Times Op Ed page, September 27, 1987.
“Why the
Debacle Shouldn’t Hearten Liberals,” New York Times Op Ed page,
December 9,
1986.
“Workers in
Fiction: Locked Out,” New York Times Book Review,
September 1,
1985.
“Our
Election Day Scapegoats,” Newsweek, November 5, 1984.
“Political
Change Among the Magnolias,” Southern Exposure,
vol. 12
(September-October
1984).
“A Comeback for
Economic Royalists,” Los Angeles Times Op Ed page,
September 3,
1984.
“Liberals Go
Back to the Flag,” New York Times Op Ed page, September 2,
1984.
“Do We Really
Want an Active President?” Washington
Post opinion page,
June 17, 1984.
“Hart’s ‘New
Ideas’ Need an Infusion of Old Ideals,” Los Angeles Times
Op Ed page,
April 24, 1984.
“When Poor Kids
Hoped a President Was Santa,” Boston Globe Op Ed page,
December 25,
1983.
“They Don’t
Make ’Em Like the Checkers Speech Anymore,” Boston
Globe
Op Ed page,
September 24, 1982.
“Roosevelt and
Reagan,” Christian Century, vol. 99 (May 12, 1982).
“Hit or Miss. Federalism,” New York Times Op Ed page, March 16,
1982.
“To Be and to
Seem: Reading Presidents in the Nuclear Age,”
Christian
Century, vol. 99 (March 17, 1982).
“America
Suffers a Change in Values,” Los Angeles Times Op Ed page,
October 28,
1981.
“The Coolidge
Model: What Better Choice?” Boston Globe Op Ed page,
June 27, 1981.
“Reagan’s
Mellon Slices,” New York Times Op Ed page, May 21, 1981.
“Liberalism is Not Dead,” New York Times Op Ed page, September 20,
1980.
“Jimmy
Carter: Populist or Politician?” Intellect,
vol. 106 (April 1978).
“Old Times
There Are Not Forgotten: A Personal View
of the New South,”
Midwest Quarterly, vol. 19 (Spring 1978).
“Where Have All
the Liberals Gone?” Texas Quarterly,
vol. 19 (Autumn 1976).
“Franklin and Jack . . . and Jimmy?”
America, vol. 135 (October 23, 1976).
BOOK & FILM REVIEWS (Partial List):
“Man of the Century” (Review of Conrad
Black, Franklin Delano Roosevelt:
Champion of
Freedom, in Washington Post Book World, December 21,
2003.
Review of Maury Klein, Rainbow’s End: The Crash of 1929, in Business
History Review, vol. 77 (Summer 2003), pp.
319-321.
Review of
Robert Wright, Nonzero: The Logic of Human Destiny, in Perspectives
in Biology and Medicine, vol. 44
(Summer, 2001), pp. 452-54.
Review of
Albert Fried, FDR and His Enemies, in The
Journal of American
History, vol. 87
(December 2000), p. 1078.
Review of
Ronald C. Tobey, Technology as Freedom: The New
Deal and the
Electrical Modernization
of the American Home, in The American
Historical Review, vol. 103 (October 1998), pp. 1342-1343.
Review of John
Faulkner, Men Working, in Los Angeles Times Book Review,
September 1,
1996.
Review of
Stanley Aronowitz, Roll Over
Beethoven: The Return of Cultural
Strife, in The American Historical Review, vol. 99
(December 1994), pp. 1646-47.
Review of
Andrew J. Dunbar and Dennis McBride, Building Hoover Dam: An Oral
History of the
Great Depression, in The Journal
of American History, vol. 81 (December 1994), pp. 1359-60.
Review of
Catherine McNichol Stock, Main Street in Crisis:
The Great
Depression and
the Old Middle Class on the Northern Plains, in The
American Historical Review, vol. 98 (April 1993), pp. 591-92.
Review of
William R. Brock, Welfare, Democracy, and the New Deal, in
The American
Historical Review, vol. 95 (October 1990), pp. 1311-12.
Review of Steve
Fraser and Gary Gerstele, eds., The
Rise and Fall of the
New Deal Order,
1930-1980, in The Journal of American History,
vol. 77 (June 1990), pp. 347-48.
Review of "Let
Us Now Praise Famous Men" Revisited (film), in The Journal
of American History, vol. 76 (December 1989), pp.
1013-14.
Review of David
E. Kyvig and Mary-Ann Blasio,
New Day/New Deal: A
Bibliography of
the Great American Depression, 1929-1941, in American History: A
Bibliographic Review, (Westport, Conn.: Meckler, 1989),
pp. 212-14.
Review of
Arnold R. Alanen and Joseph A. Eden, Main Street
Ready-Made:
The New Deal
Community of Greendale, Wisconsin, in The Journal
of American History, vol. 75 (December 1988), pp. 1001-02.
Review of Seth Cagin and Philip Dray, We are Not Afr