Tracy Campbell specializes in twentieth century United States political and social history. He has written three books: The Politics of Despair: Power and Resistance in the Tobacco Wars (Kentucky, 1993); Short of the Glory: The Fall and Redemption of Edward F. Prichard, Jr. (Kentucky, 1998), which was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize and was featured on NPR’s “Morning Edition”; and Deliver the Vote: A History of Election Fraud, an American Political Tradition, 1742-2004 (Basic Books, 2005). He has lectured widely on issues of election integrity and political history, and has written a fourth grade history text of Kentucky. In 2008, he served as George McGovern Visiting Professor of Public Leadership at Dakota Wesleyan University.

In addition to serving as Director of Undergraduate Studies in the History Department, he is also Co-Director of the Wendell H. Ford Public Policy Research Center. At the Ford Center, he has organized symposia and lectures that connect history with current public policy debates. Some of those who have participated in these events are former Vice President Walter Mondale, former presidential candidate and U.S. Senator George McGovern, former U.S. Senator Walter Huddleston, and historians Donald Ritchie and Timothy Tyson.  In 2006, a symposium sponsored by the Ford Center on the legacy of the Church Committee was featured on C-Span. His current research project is a history of the St. Louis Gateway Arch, which explores several of his various scholarly interests: political corruption, the New Deal, and architecture.

B.A.--University of Kentucky, 1984

M.A.--Duke University, 1985

Ph.D.--Duke University, 1988

• The Politics of Despair: Power and Resistance in the Tobacco Wars (Univ. Press of Ky., 1993)
• Short of the Glory: The Fall and Redemption of Edward F. Prichard, Jr. (Univ. Press of Ky., 1998)
• Deliver the Vote: A History of American Election Fraud, an American Political Tradition -1742-2004 (Basic Books, 2005)