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IcoMoon
Education
PhD, University of Wisconsin, 1986
About
Awards and Honors
Winner, Best Biography for T.R.M. Howard: Doctor, Entrepreneur, Civil Rights Pioneer , Best Book Awards, Sponsored by American Book Fest. (2020)
Winner, Best Biography for T.R.M. Howard: Doctor, Entrepreneur, Civil Rights Pioneer , Independent Book Publishers Association, the largest organization of its kind (2019)
Winner, Best Screenplay, “Keepin’ It Mighty Hot,” Alabama Writers’ Conclave, the oldest and largest organization of writers in Alabama (2017)
Research Fellow, Earhart Foundation (1992-1993, 2002)
Visiting Scholar, Social Philosophy and Policy Center, Bowling Green State University (1992, 1999)
Ellis Hawley Prize, Best Article by a Junior Scholar, Journal of Policy History (1995)
Urban History Association Award for Best Scholarly Journal Article in Urban History (1990)
Summer Residence Fellowship, Center for Study of Public Choice, George Mason University, Fairfax, Virginia (1986)
Chair, State Advisory Committee, U.S. Commission on Civil Rights
Member, Liberty and Power (Group Blog at History News Network )
Selected Publications
Books
FDR’s War on the Bill of Rights: Mass Surveillance, Censorship, and Concentration Camps (Oakland: Independent Institute, 2023).
T.R.M. Howard: Doctor, Entrepreneur, Civil Rights Pioneer (Oakland: Independent Institute, 2018).
with Linda Royster Beito, Black Maverick: T.R.M. Howard’s Fight for Civil Rights and Economic Power (Urbana, IL: University Illinois Press, 2009).
From Mutual Aid to the Welfare State: Fraternal Societies and Social Services, 1890-1967 (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2000).
Taxpayers in Revolt: Tax Resistance during the Great Depression (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1989).
Books (edited and co-edited)
Rose Lane Says: Thoughts on Liberty and Equality, 1942-1945 (Pierre: South Dakota Historical Society Press, forthcoming in 2025).
with Peter Gordon and Alexander Tabarrok, eds. The Voluntary City: Choice, Community, and Civil Society (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2002).
Other Publications (selected)
“Roads Taken, and Not Taken, from the Progressive Era to the New Deal.” In Phillip W. Magness and Michael Douma, eds., What is Classical Liberal History? (Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield 2018).
“New Deal Mass Surveillance: ‘The Black Inquisition Committee,’ 1935-1936,” Journal of Policy History 30, no. 2 (Winter 2018): 169-201.
with Marcus M. Witcher, “‘New Deal Witch Hunt’: The Buchanan Committee Investigation of the Committee for Constitutional Government ,” Independent Review 21 (Summer 2016): 47-71.
with Linda Royster Beito, “The ‘Lodger Evil’ and the Transformation of Progressive Housing Reform, 1890–1930 ,” Independent Review 20 (Spring 2016): 485-508.
“Mooseheart: ‘The Child City’,” in The History of Orphanages Reconsidered , Richard McKenzie, ed. (New York: Encounter Books, 2009).
with Linda Royster Beito, “Isabel Paterson, Rose Wilder Lane, and Zora Neale Hurston on War, Race, the State, and Liberty ,” Independent Review 12 (Spring 2008).
with Linda Royster Beito, “‘Let Down Your Bucket Where You Are:’ The Afro-American Hospital and Black Health Care in Mississippi, 1924-1966 ,” Social Science History 30 (Winter 2006), 551-69.
with Linda Royster Beito, “Blacks, Gun Cultures and Gun Control: T.R.M. Howard, Armed Self Defense, and the Struggle for Civil Rights in Mississippi, ” The Journal of Firearms and Public Policy (September 2005).
“T.R.M. Howard: Pragmatism over Strict Integrationist Ideology in the Mississippi Delta, 1942-1954,” in Before Brown: Civil Rights and White Backlash in the Modern South , Glenn Feldman, ed. (Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press, 2004).
with Linda Royster Beito, “Gold Democrats and the Decline of Classical Liberalism, 1896-1900 ,” Independent Review 4 (Spring 2000): 555-571.
with Linda Royster Beito, “Rival Road Builders: Private Toll Roads in Nevada, 1852-1880 ,” Nevada Historical Society Quarterly 41 (Summer 1998): 71-91.
“From Privies to Boulevards: The Private Supply of Infrastructure in the United States during the Nineteenth Century ,” in Development by Consent: The Voluntary Supply of Public Goods and Services , Jerry Jenkins and David Sisk, eds. (San Francisco: ICS Press, 1993): 23-48.
“Six Questions for David Beito ,” author of Black Maverick (interview by Scott Horton), Harper’s Magazine , June 11, 2010.
“T.R.M. Howard, An Unlikely Civil Rights Hero ,” Los Angeles Times , September 9, 2009.
with Johnathan Bean, “A Strong Foundation [on Booker T. Washington] ,” National Review , March 23, 2010.
with Linda Royster Beito, “The Christian Conservative Who Opposed the Vietnam War ,” History News Network , August 21, 2006.
with Ralph E. Luker, and Robert K. C. Johnson, “The AHA’s Double Standard on Academic Freedom ,” Perspectives , March 2006.
with Linda Royster Beito, “The Grim and Overlooked Anniversary of the Murder of the Rev. George W. Lee, Civil Rights Activist ,” History News Network , May 6, 2005.
with Linda Royster Beito, “New Probe in Till Case Unlikely to Bear Fruit ,” Atlanta-Journal Constitution , May 19, 2004.
with Linda Royster Beito, “Why It’s Unlikely the Emmett Till Murder Mystery Will Ever Be Solved ,” History News Network , April 26, 2004.
with Charles W. Nuckolls, “Getting the State of Alabama to Improve its History Standards: Victories and Defeats ,” History News Network , April 9, 2004.
with Charles Nuckolls, “Wrong Song of the South: The Dangerous Fallacies of Confederate Multiculturalism ,” Reason Online , July 19, 2004.
with Robert “KC” Johnson and Ralph E. Luker , “Why We Are Dissatisfied with the OAH’s Report on Repression ,” History News Network , November 15, 2004.