Participant Info

First Name
Laura
Last Name
Smith
Country
United States
State
AZ
Affiliation
Oxford University and Arizona State University
Website URL
https://www.history.ox.ac.uk/people/laura-smith
Keywords
Presidential Historian, American Elections, Political History, Foreign Policy, Domestic Policy, Democratization, Populism, Managerial Presidency, Presidential Power,
Availability
Media Contact
Additional Contact Information
She can also be reached at laura.e.smith@asu.edu OR dr.laura.potus.hty@gmail.com
PhD
PhD

Personal Info

Photo
About Me

Professor Laura Ellyn Smith is a presidential historian. She is an Assistant Teaching Professor at Arizona State University, where she is a member of the Public History Committee.

She is finalizing a second doctorate – a DPhil in U.S. History at Oxford University, St. Anne’s College, analyzing the development of presidential power in foreign policy at the turn of the 20th century. She is the recipient of the Philip Davies Fellowship in U.S. Politics at The British Library. As a tutorial instructor she taught American history and politics at 19 of Oxford’s colleges and is experienced at educating diverse audiences.

She graduated with a Ph.D. in History from the University of Mississippi. Her thesis was entitled “Populism and Democratization in the Presidential Election of 1832.” This work has become the basis for her book “Rhetoric versus Reality: Democratization and the Presidential Election of 1832,” under contract.

From March 2020-May 2021, she taught American Race Relations and Politics at Canterbury Christ Church University. Her students at Canterbury Christ Church University nominated her for two teaching awards, Most Dedicated to Students’ Learning, and Most Dedicated to Supporting Students.

She gained a Distinction in her MA in U.S. History and Politics at University College London, where she was awarded the Americas Excellence Award. She graduated with First Class Honors for her BA in American Studies with a Year Abroad from the University of Leicester.

She enjoys contributing to public history. See for example, Missouri Humanities panel on 19th century political parties: https://www.facebook.com/mohumanities/videos/1196348274056783/

 

Recent Publications

Book:

Rhetoric versus Reality: Democratization and the Presidential Election of 1832 (Under contract).

Journal Articles and Book Chapters:

“A Promise Fulfilled? Obama and Cuba,” in The Obama Administration: Perceptions and Encounters Beyond America, eds. Rachel Pistol and Dawn-Marie Gibson. Forthcoming.  

A Clash of Ideas: Presidential Election Policy Debates in 1832 Kentucky,” in The Register of the Kentucky Historical Society, Vol. 119, No 3 (Summer, 2021), pp. 253-270. Available at: https://muse.jhu.edu/issue/48198

“Anti-Jacksonian democratization: The first national political party conventions,” American Nineteenth Century History, Volume 21, Issue 2 (August 2020), pp. 149-169. Available at: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/14664658.2020.1807696

“The Death of the Transformational Presidency?” Journal of American Studies in Italy (JAm It!): Nationalism: Hyper and Post, Number 1 (May 2019), pp. 26-54. Available at: http://www.ojs.unito.it/index.php/jamit/article/view/2895

“Southerners Divided: The Opposition of Mississippi Whigs to Texas Annexation during the Presidential Election of 1844 as portrayed by The Republican of Woodville, Mississippi,” Journal of Mississippi History, Volume LXXX, No. 3 and No. 4 (Fall/ Winter 2018), pp. 133-153. Available at: http://www.mississippihistory.org/journal-mississippi-history

“The Forgotten and the Unforgettable: The Imperial Presidencies of James Knox Polk and Franklin Delano Roosevelt,” White House Studies, Volume 14, Issue 2 (2018), pp. 131-145.

“Through the Eyes of the Enemy: Why Henry Clay Lost the Presidential Election of 1844 through the Lens of The Daily Argus of Portland, Maine,” Maine History, Volume 50, Number 1(Winter 2016), pp. 58-78. Available at: https://digitalcommons.library.umaine.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1139&context=mainehistoryjournal

“A Northern Great Society? A Comparative Study of Two Illinois Newspapers on School Desegregation from 1968 to 1969,” Journal of Illinois History, Volume 18, Number 4 (Winter 2015), pp. 277-292.

Book Entries and Book Reviews

Robert Fleegler, Brutal Campaign: How the 1988 Election Set the Stage for Twenty-First-Century American Politicsfor H-Diplo, December 7, 2023. Available at: https://networks.h-net.org/group/discussions/20013735/h-diplo-review-essay-537-smith-fleegler-brutal-campaign

“U.S. presidential election, 2020,” in Encyclopedia of the American Presidency, eds. Michael A. Genovese and Alison D. Howard, 4th edn (New York: Facts on File, [1994] 2021), pp. 3343-3349.

Richard Ellis, Old Tip vs. the Sly Fox: The 1840 Election and the Making of a Partisan Nation, H-Nationalism, H-Net Reviews, October, 2020. Available at: https://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.php?id=55622

David S. Heidler and Jeanne T. Heidler, The Rise of Andrew Jackson: Myth, Manipulation, and the Making of Modern Politics for Ohio Valley History, Volume 19, Number 1 (Spring 2019), pp. 94-96.

Gregory P. Downs, After Appomattox: Military Occupation and the Ends of War for Southern Historian: A Journal of Southern History, Volume XXXVIII (Spring 2017), pp. 104-105.

Damian Alan Pargas, Slavery and Forced Migration in the Antebellum South for History: The Journal of the Historical Association, Volume 102, Issue 349 (January 2017), pp. 167-169.Also available at: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/hist.2017.102.issue-349/issuetoc.

Media Coverage
Country Focus
United States
Expertise by Geography
United States
Expertise by Chronology
19th century, 20th century, 21st century
Expertise by Topic
American Presidents, Politics