Dr Tom Arnold-Forster

I joined the Department of History at King’s in 2021 as a Lecturer (Education) in Twentieth-Century American History and took up my current post in 2022. I completed my BA, MPhil, and PhD at the University of Cambridge, where I was also a Junior Research Fellow. I’ve held fellowships at the Library of Congress in Washington, DC, and at the Newberry Library in Chicago.

Research interests and PhD supervision

• Twentieth-century US history
• History of political ideas
• Media and communications studies

My research focuses on the political, cultural, and intellectual history of the United States in the twentieth century. My current book project is an intellectual biography of the journalist and political theorist Walter Lippmann (under contract with Princeton University Press). My next project will explore the history of corruption in modern America, from muckraking journalism to the Watergate scandal (I’ve published a pilot article from this project in the Historical Journal).

Selected publications

• "Walter Lippmann and Public Opinion," American Journalism 40, No. 1 (2023): 51-79.
• "Journalism and Corruption in Chicago, 1912-1931," Historical Journal 65, No. 5 (2022): 1374-96.
• "Rethinking the Scopes Trial: Cultural Conflict, Media Spectacle, and Circus Politics," Journal of American Studies 56, No. 1 (2022): 142-66.
• "Democracy and Expertise in the Lippmann-Terman Controversy," Modern Intellectual History 16, No. 2 (2019): 561-92.
• "Dr. Billy Taylor, 'America's Classical Music,' and the Role of the Jazz Ambassador," Journal of American Studies 51, No. 1 (2017): 117-39.

Teaching

I teach modules in modern American history, political thought, and research methods. I’m an Associate Fellow of the Higher Education Academy.

Expertise and public engagement

I’ve written reviews and essays about American history for the TLS, Dissent, Prospect, the Daily Beast, the US Intellectual History Blog, and the Los Angeles Review of Books.