Jeffrey Lingan Pasley (born February 27, 1964) is a professor of

American history The history of the lands that became the United States began with the arrival of the first people in the Americas around 15,000 BC. Numerous indigenous cultures formed, and many saw transformations in the 16th century away from more densely ...

at the

University of Missouri The University of Missouri (Mizzou, MU, or Missouri) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Columbia, Missouri. It is Missouri's largest university and the flagship of the four-campus Universit ...

, specializing in the

Early Republic The Roman Republic ( la, Res publica Romana ) was a form of government of Rome and the era of the classical Roman civilization when it was run through public representation of the Roman people. Beginning with the overthrow of the Roman Kingdo ...

. He is the oldest son of John Pasley, a former civil engineer and local public official.

Early life and education

Pasley spent most of his childhood in

Topeka, Kansas Topeka ( ; Kansa language, Kansa: ; iow, Dópikˀe, script=Latn or ) is the Capital (political), capital city of the U.S. state of Kansas and the County seat, seat of Shawnee County, Kansas, Shawnee County. It is along the Kansas River in the ...

, graduating from

Washburn Rural High School Washburn Rural High School is a public high school located in southwest Topeka, Kansas, operated by Auburn–Washburn USD 437, and serves students in grades 9–12. The school is next to Washburn Rural Middle School. In 2007, Edward Raines became ...

in 1982. He graduated from

Carleton College Carleton College ( ) is a private liberal arts college in Northfield, Minnesota. Founded in 1866, it had 2,105 undergraduate students and 269 faculty members in fall 2016. The 200-acre main campus is between Northfield and the 800-acre Cowling ...

, a liberal-arts school in

Northfield, Minnesota Northfield is a city in Dakota and Rice counties in the State of Minnesota. It is mostly in Rice County, with a small portion in Dakota County. The population was 20,790 at the 2020 census. History Northfield was platted in 1856 by John W. N ...

, in 1986. After graduating, he moved to

Washington, D.C. ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...

, where he worked on the staff of

Al Gore Albert Arnold Gore Jr. (born March 31, 1948) is an American politician, businessman, and environmentalist who served as the 45th vice president of the United States from 1993 to 2001 under President Bill Clinton. Gore was the Democratic Part ...

's attempted campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination in the 1988 election,University of Missouri Department of History - Jeffrey L. Pasley
/ref> during much of 1986 and 1987. Throughout the same period, he also contributed articles for ''

The New Republic ''The New Republic'' is an American magazine of commentary on politics, contemporary culture, and the arts. Founded in 1914 by several leaders of the progressive movement, it attempted to find a balance between "a liberalism centered in hum ...

'', a liberal political commentary magazine.

Academic career

Pasley completed graduate school at

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...

in 1993 with a

Ph.D. A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, Ph.D., or DPhil; Latin: or ') is the most common degree at the highest academic level awarded following a course of study. PhDs are awarded for programs across the whole breadth of academic fields. Because it is a ...

He taught at

Florida State University Florida State University (FSU) is a public research university in Tallahassee, Florida. It is a senior member of the State University System of Florida. Founded in 1851, it is located on the oldest continuous site of higher education in the st ...

from 1993 to 1999 before beginning his current tenure at the University of Missouri later in 1999. Pasley's research focuses on American political culture between the American Revolution and the Civil War. In addition, Pasley has taught classes on the United States during the

Cold War The Cold War is a term commonly used to refer to a period of geopolitical tension between the United States and the Soviet Union and their respective allies, the Western Bloc and the Eastern Bloc. The term '' cold war'' is used because the ...

, especially in the field of popular conspiracy theories. His 2001 book ''The Tyranny of Printers'' showed that many early professional politicians in the U.S. were newspaper printers and editors, based upon "well-crafted biographical accounts of critical figures". A later work, ''The First Presidential Contest'' (2013) was described as "A superb, important book. Likely to become the definitive study of the 1796 election." "The importance of this book" lay in setting the election in the wider political context of the time. In a 2015 interview with Vox Magazine (an arm of the ''

Columbia Missourian The ''Columbia Missourian'' is a digital-first newspaper based in Columbia, Missouri, published online seven days a week and in print five days a week. The newspaper is affiliated with the Missouri School of Journalism, and is owned as a 501c3 no ...

'' newspaper), Pasley talked about the role of comic books in reflecting the social political climate of the time in postwar America.Mary Hilleren
"A conversation with Jeff Pasley: An MU professor uses comics to teach American history"
Vox (magazine), 28 May 2015

Bibliography

*''"The Tyranny of Printers": Newspaper Politics in the Early American Republic'' (University of Virginia Press, 2001, ) *''Beyond the Founders: New Approaches to the Political History of the Early American Republic'', co-authored with David Waldstreicher and Andrew Robertson (University of North Carolina Press, 2004, ) *''The First Presidential Contest: The Election of 1796 and the Founding of American Democracy'' (University of Kansas Press, 2013, )

References

External links

1964 births Living people University of Missouri faculty {{US-historian-stub Harvard Graduate School of Arts and Sciences alumni People from Topeka, Kansas Carleton College alumni The New Republic people Florida State University faculty Historians of the United States