Lewis Johnson

Thesis title: "Republican Party Politics and the U.S. South in the Age of Harry S. Truman"

Biography

Background

I was born and raised in Central Scotland. Between 2017 and 2021, I studied History and Politics (MA) at the University of Edinburgh and developed a keen interest in the history of the United States. As part of my MA dissertation, I analysed the 1932 U.S. presidential election campaign through the lens of the African American printed press.

In 2021, I completed a Masters (MSc) degree in American History. My MSc dissertation focused on the post-World War II 'triumph' of liberal Republicanism and explored the battle between Senator Robert A. Taft and General Dwight D. Eisenhower for the Republican presidential nomination in 1952.

In September 2022, I began my PhD in History. It is a project kindly and generously funded by the Jenny Balston Scholarship.

Qualifications

MA History and Politics, First Class (University of Edinburgh, 2017-2021).

MSc American History, Distinction (University of Edinburgh, 2021-2022).

Responsibilities & affiliations

Scottish Association for the Study of America (SASA), Member.

Historians of the Twentieth Century United States (HOTCUS), Member, Postgraduate Secretary (2023-2025)

British Association for American Studies (BAAS), Member.

The Royal Historical Society (RHS), Postgraduate Member.

The Southern Historical Association (SHA), Member.

Undergraduate teaching

History of the United States (Autumn 2023; Spring 2026)

Writing Centre Tutor (Autumn 2023-)

Historian's Toolkit *(Autumn 2024; Autumn 2025)

Research summary

I am a historian of American political development, broadly conceived. I am  especially interested in the history of the Republican Party, the U.S. South, and the twentieth century.

 

Current research interests

My PhD thesis explores the Republican Party’s relationship with the U.S. South during the presidency of Harry S. Truman. It develops a longer-term framework for understanding the rise of twentieth-century southern Republicanism, focusing on the party's efforts to cultivate white southern support decades prior to the rise of a Republican South by the turn of the twenty-first century.

Project activity

MA Dissertation, "'The Devil and the Deep Blue Sea': Herbert Hoover, Franklin D. Roosevelt and the 1932 Presidential Election in the African American Press" (14 April 2021).

MSc Dissertation, "Robert A. Taft, Dwight D. Eisenhower and the Triumph of the Liberal Republicans, 1950-1952" (15 August 2022).

Papers delivered

"Robert A. Taft, Dwight D. Eisenhower, and the Triumph of the Liberal Republicans, 1948-1952," Scottish Association of the Study of America (SASA) Annual Conference, 4 March 2023.

“‘Dixie Sun Smiles on Eisenhower’: Dwight D. Eisenhower, Republican Party Politics, and the Birth of a Lasting Presidential Republicanism in the South, 1952,” Historians of the Twentieth Century United States (HOTCUS), 21 June 2024.

“‘The Best of Enemies’: The Republican Party and the States’ Rights Democratic Party, 1948-1952,” Southern Historical Association (SHA), 26 October 2024, Kansas City, Missouri.

“World War II and the Rise of Southern Republicanism,” HOTCUS Winter Symposium, University of Gloucestershire, 21 Feburary 2025.

“‘Dixie Maelstrom’: The Republican Party, the U.S. South, and the Election of 1948,” HOTCUS Annual Conference, 20 June 2025.

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