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.  He teaches courses in recent U.S. social and political history, and in 2010 received the "Great Teacher" award from the UK Alumni Association.

Prof. Campbell is also Co-Director of the Wendell H. Ford 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, former RNC Chair Mike Duncan, and U.S. Senate Historian Donald Ritchie.  In 2006, a symposium sponsored by the Ford Center on the legacy of the Church Committee was featured on C-Span. His newest book is a history of the St. Louis Gateway Arch, which will be published in the "Icons of America" series from Yale University Press.  His current research project examines how the United States mobilized at home in the immediate aftermath of Pearl Harbor.

Current Students

• Amanda Higgins
• James Savage
• Matthew Hall
• Robert Turpin
• Luke Victor