Professor Ben Keppel and Tara Carlisle of the Digital Scholarship Lab of the University of Oklahoma Libraries gratefully acknowledge the assistance of the following individuals, who made it possible for us to use various images: graduate student Paul Vieth of the history of science department, Eric McCrory of the George W. Bush Presidential Library and Museum, the press office within the office of Barack and Michelle Obama, Roslyn Quarto of ESOP Cleveland, and Julie Stoner of the Prints and Photographs Division of the Library of Congress. We also thank Jen Waller, Open Educational Resources and Scholarly Communications Coordinator at the University of Oklahoma Libraries, for her wise advice and counsel. We thank Professor Katherine Pandora and Dean of University Libraries Rick Luce for their understanding of the possibilities held for this project by the work emerging within the digital humanities. To the extent that this website is free of typographical errors, it is because of the great skill and care of Sarah C. Smith. To the extent that these and other errors remain, Ben Keppel is the responsible party and the one who will happily receive corrections.
Dr. Ben Keppel (BA, Phi Beta Kappa, University of California, Davis, 1984; MA, 1986, PhD, 1992, University of California, Los Angeles) studies the development of the political culture of the United States. In his writing and research, he is particularly concerned with those points at which popular culture and political culture merge. His most recent book, Brown v. Board and the Transformation of American Culture: Education and The South in the Age of Desegregation (Louisiana State University Press, 2015), exemplifies this interest. In this book, Keppel construes the term “public education” to include not only debates over formal educational institutions and policies but also efforts in the broader popular culture to formally and informally educate citizens in an effort to change longstanding patterns of culture.
Professor Keppel teaches a variety of courses on twentieth-century American history, including courses on the history of the media, Cold War culture, and race relations.
Email: bkeppel@ou.edu