Professional Summary
John Kurt Alexander
Professor Emeritus, History
5138617462
alexanjk@ucmail.uc.edu
John K. Alexander, who grew up in Portland, Oregon, joined the University of Cincinnati faculty in 1969 and became Professor Emeritus on August 15, 2012. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Chicago. While his primary research interests are in the era of the American Revolution, he has special interest in the history of the media, of poverty and of crowd violence in American history generally.
Professor Alexander has been recognized for his teaching and concern for students. In 1975 he received the University of Cincinnati’s A. B. “Dolly” Cohen Award for Excellence in University Teaching and was elected to Omicron Delta Kappa; in 1989 he was given the Faculty Emphasis On Diversity Award of the University of Cincinnati’s Racial Awareness Pilot Project; in 2002 the Ohio Academy of History presented him its Outstanding Teacher Award; the University of Cincinnati honored Professor Alexander by bestowing its Distinguished Teaching Professor Award on him in 2003; in 2009 the African American Cultural & Research Center in conjunction with the African American Alumni Association gave him its Award of Appreciation for his “dedication and commitment to the students of the University of Cincinnati.” Professor Alexander’s other awards include being selected as the first George Washington Distinguished Scholar of The Tri-State Association of The Society of The Cincinnati (1999) and his inclusion in Who's Who in American Education and inWho’s Who in America.
He is the author of the following books:
Samuel Adams: The Life of an American Revolutionary (Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2011). This work, which was an “Editor’s Pick” in the July 2011 History Book Club offerings, was selected as a Choice Outstanding Academic Title, 2011.
Samuel Adams: America’s Revolutionary Politician (Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2002 and paperback edition issued 2004).
The Selling of the Constitutional Convention of 1787: A History of News Coverage (Madison: Madison House for The Center for the Study of the American Constitution, University of Wisconsin-Madison, 1990)
Render Them Submissive: Responses to Poverty in Philadelphia, 1760-1800 (Amherst, MA:The University of Massachusetts Press, 1980)
Alexander has published articles in The William and Mary Quarterly, Early American Studies, The New England Quarterly, The Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography, Pennsylvania History, Essex Institute Historical Collections, and Vermont History. He produced the annotated entry on the United States Constitution for “Special Report on the Constitution’s Bicentennial,” The Los Angeles Times, September 13, 1987 (Special Report, pp. 4-8) as well as “‘High Crimes’: A Yardstick Made by History,”The Los Angeles Times, December 19, 1998 (National Edition, A15, co-authored with Richard T. Cooper).
Courses Taught
United States Survey (Colonial to the Present)
The Coming of the American Revolution
Revolutionary America
Seminar(s) on Poverty in America
Seminar(s) on Crowd Violence in America
Graduate Historiography Seminar on the Literature of Early American History