Raymond Arsenault


Raymond Ostby Arsenault is an American historian and academic in Florida, United States of America. He has taught at the University of South Florida, St. Petersburg campus since 1980, co-founding the Florida Studies Program. Arsenault is a specialist in the political, social, and environmental history of the American South.
Arsenault wrote about the 1961 Freedom Rides in a 2006 book, Freedom Riders: 1961 and the Struggle for Racial Justice. His work on this critical period in the civil rights movement became the basis of a two-hour 2010 television documentary film, Freedom Riders. He appeared on The Oprah Winfrey Show in an episode dedicated to Freedom Riders. He has been awarded the Frank L. and Harriet C. Owsley Award of the Southern Historical Association and the 2006 PSP Award for Excellence Honorable Mention History & American Studies.

Early life and education

Raymond Arsenault was born in Hyannis, Massachusetts, in 1948. He holds a B.A. degree in History from Princeton University, and an M.A. and PhD in American History from Brandeis University.

Career

Arsenault has taught at the University of Minnesota, Brandeis University, and a Universite d’Angers in France, where he was a Fulbright Lecturer in 1984–85. He has served as a consultant for numerous museums and public institutions, including the National Park Service, the National Civil Rights Museum, the Rosa Parks Library and Museum at Troy University in Alabama, and the United States Information Agency.
He has taught at the University of South Florida, St. Petersburg campus, since 1980 and is the John Hope Franklin Professor of Southern History and was founding co-director of the Florida Studies Program.

Personal life

He is married to Kathleen Hardee Arsenault, retired university library dean, and the couple have two daughters, Amelia and Anne.

Publications

  • 1984: The Wild Ass of the Ozarks: Jeff Davis and the Social Bases of Southern Politics. Philadelphia: Temple University Press .
  • 1984: "The End of the Long Hot Summer: The Air Conditioner and Southern Culture". Journal of Southern History. 50: 597–628.
  • 1988: St. Petersburg and the Florida Dream, 1888–1950. Norfolk: Donning..
  • 1991: Crucible of Liberty: 200 Years of the Bill of Rights. New York: The Free Press, 1991.
  • 2002: The Changing South of Gene Patterson: Journalism and Civil Rights, 1960–1968. Gainesville: University Press of Florida.
  • 2005: Paradise Lost? The Environmental History of Florida. Gainesville: University Press of Florida.
  • 2006: , New York: Oxford University Press; paperback 2007. - Wikipedia article on the book: Freedom Riders: 1961 and the Struggle for Racial Justice
  • 2008: The Third Space of Enunciation: Proceedings of the English Department Conference, 9–10 March 2006.
  • 2009: , New York: Bloomsbury Press..
  • 2011: Abridged version: , New York: Oxford University Press.
  • 2013: Dixie Redux: Essays in Honor of Sheldon Hackney. Montgomery: New South Books,.
  • 2018: Arthur Ashe: A Life. Simon & Schuster,.
  • 2024: John Lewis: In Search of the Beloved Community. Yale University Press,