Professor of History
Dean of The College and Graduate School of Arts and Sciences
Education
Ph.D. University of Maryland, 1976
B.S. Wisconsin State University-Stevens Point, 1969
Academic Positions
Professor of History, University of South Carolina, 1998-2007
Professor of History, Tulane University, 1994-1998
Associate Professor of History, Tulane, 1982-1994
Assistant Professor of History, Tulane, 1980-1982
Researcher, U.S. Air Force History Office, Andrews Air Force Base, 1977
Instructor, University of Maryland, University College, 1974-1976
NDEA Fellow, University of Maryland, 1969-1972
Administrative Positions
Chair, Department of History, University of South Carolina, 1998-2007
Administrative and budgetary responsibility for department of 38 tenure-track faculty, approximately six regular adjunct professors, five staff members, 125 graduate students, and 450 History majors. Oversight of $4 million budget.
Highlights include recruiting 21 of the most prominent and promising scholar/teachers in the country, including senior faculty from Emory, Harvard, and Vanderbilt; raising visibility of the department nationally and locally; attracting notice from the Chronicle of Higher Education and other publications; significantly diversifying the department; helping enhance undergraduate and graduate programs; helping raise $500,000 in private contributions to the department.
Chair, Department of History, Tulane University, 1997-1998
Administrative and budgetary responsibility for department of 19 tenure-track faculty and staff.
Administrative Assistant, Wisconsin State Senate, 1977-1980
Responsibilities included managing office of Senate Minority Leader, handling press relations, preparing bills, speech writing, serving as liaison between the senator and the governor and his staff, and dealing with state agencies in connection with legislative constituent matters.
Selected Awards and Honors
Affirmative Action Administrative Award, presented by the Black Faculty and Staff Association of the University of South Carolina, 2000
Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching Award, Tulane University, 1997
Sheldon Hackney Award for Excellence in Teaching in the Liberal Arts and Sciences,
Tulane University, 1987
Books
"Young Bob" La Follette: A Biography of Robert M. La Follette, Jr.,
1895-1953
Columbia, Mo.: University of Missouri Press, 1978.
Accorded honorable mention as runner-up for the Lyndon B. Johnson Library's D. B. Hardeman Prize for the best book on the U.S. Congress in the Twentieth Century published between 1976-1978.
Reissued, with new introduction, as Young Bob: A Biography of Robert La Follette, Jr., Madison: Wisconsin Historical Society, 2003.
Heir to Wisconsin's famous political dynasty, Young Bob La Follette was the model for the main character of Alan Drury's classic Washington novel, Advise and Consent. Succeeding his father in the U.S. Senate in 1925, Young Bob gained national prominence through his efforts to pull the United States out of the Great Depression and his chairmanship to the Senate Civil Liberties Committee, which investigated violations of labor's right to organize. La Follette was a transitional figure in the history of reform, linking the progressivism of his father's generation with New Deal liberalism. In 1946 La Follette was unexpectedly defeated by the then unknown Joe McCarthy. Several years later, when McCarthy was at the height of his notoriety, La Follette committed suicide.
"Thoroughly researched, carefully analytical . . . this outstanding biography is rewarding reading."
—Frank Freidel, Washington Post Book World
"Maney has put together a tragic drama played with cold facts of history. It would make a powerful stage or film production."
—The Progressive
" . . . concise and intelligent."
—New York Review of Books
"Maney's biography is not only of a man, but of an age of political stress and national economic disarray. The author provides an important look at how our national political leaders in general, and one in particular, saw the world and tried to make it better."
—The Milwaukee Sentinel
" . . . provides rich insight into the ideology and politics of modern American reform."
—Journal of Interdisciplinary History
"The Roosevelt Presence: A Biography of Franklin Delano Roosevelt." New York: Twayne, 1993.
Reissued, with new introduction, as The Roosevelt Presence: The Life and Legacy of FDR. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1998.
For over a half century Franklin D. Roosevelt has been the standard by which we measure our chief executives and by which they—Democrat and Republican—have measured themselves. Since his death in 1945, historians have consistently placed him in the pantheon of great presidents with George Washington and Abraham Lincoln. In this original and concise biography, Patrick J. Maney reexamines FDR's life and legacy, carefully sifting fact from myth and assessing the impact of his dominating presence not only on his own time but on our time as well. Maney shows how Roosevelt's larger-than-life image arose and how it has shaped the modern presidency. But this is also a book that raises some hard questions about the nature of FDR's enduring influence and about his suitability as a role model for his successors from Truman to Clinton.
"Deeply informed, elegantly written, and persuasively argued, it stands as a major scholarly achievement."
—Ellis W. Hawley, American Historical Review
". . . Maney brings cool judgment to bear on the best loved, most hated, most influential, and most enigmatic personality of modern America . . . a model, compact biography."
—Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr., Political Science Quarterly
"The most penetrating and best balanced assessment of FDR, as political leader and man of his times, that has yet been published."
—John Milton Cooper, author of The Warrior and the Priest: Woodrow Wilson and Theodore Roosevelt
"Easily the most thoughtful, politically astute, and historiographically up-to-date of the many single-volume biographies."
—Anthony J. Badger, Paul Mellon Professor of American History, Cambridge University
"A concise, well-written, and balanced biography . . . The Roosevelt Presence is an important addition to the historiography of the Roosevelt years and will enhance any scholar or general reader's knowledge of that vital period in U.S. history."
—Judith R. Johnson, The Historian
"Wonderfully fair-minded, thoughtful and commendably brief . . . Just the right mix of criticism and understanding . . . a fine piece of historical writing."
—James T. Patterson, author of Grand Expectations: The United States, 1945-1974
"A striking success in every way"
—Robert H. Ferrell, author of The Dying President: Franklin D. Roosevelt, 1944-1945
Articles/Book Chapters
"Morris H. Rubin, The Progressive, and Cold War Liberalism," The Wisconsin Magazine of History 67 (Spring, 1984). William Best Hesseltine Award for the best article in the Wisconsin Magazine of History during 1983-1984.
"Morris H. Rubin: Memoirs of a Progressive Editor." (Compiled and edited, with Introduction and Epilogue.) The Old Northwest 12 (Summer 1986).
"FDR: The Illusive Standard," Prologue (April, 1994).
"Hale Boggs, Organized Labor, and the Politics of Race in South Louisiana, 1940-1972," in Southern Labor in Transition: 1940-1995, edited by Robert H. Zieger (Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press, 1997), 230-50.
"Hale Boggs: The Southerner as National Democrat," in Masters of the House, edited by Raymond Smock, Susan Hammond, and Roger Davidson (Boulder, Colorado: Westview Press, 1998).
"The Rise and Fall of the New Deal Congress," OAH Magazine of History 12 (Summer 1998).
“La Follette, McCarthy, and the Progressive Origins of Anticommunism,” chapter in McCarthyism in America, to be published by Yale University Press.
“They Sang for Roosevelt: Songs of the People in the Age of FDR,” Journal of American and Comparative Cultures. 23 (Spring 2000): 83-88.
“Joseph’s McCarthy’s First Victim,” Virginia Quarterly Review 77 (Summer 2001).
“The Forgotten New Deal Congress, 1933-1945,” in The American Congress: The Building of Democracy, edited by Julian E. Zelizer (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2004): 446-473.
Selected Newspaper Articles/OP-EDS
"Morris Rubin, "Progressive Crusader—1911-1980," The Capital Times (Madison, WI),
August 8, 1980.
"Hale Boggs—an Early Role Model for Clinton," The Times Picayune (New Orleans),
November 2, 1997, B7.
"Bush Address Should Signal His Intentions," The State (Columbia, SC), January 20, 2001.
"Hundred Days Standard Long Outmoded," The State (Columbia, SC), April 28, 2001.
"FDR: Still Arguing Over His Legacy," The State (Columbia, SC), April 10, 2005.
Encyclopedia Essays
"Robert M. La Follette, Jr.," biographical essay in American National Biography (New York: Oxford University Press, 1999).
"Franklin D. Roosevelt," and "Cordell Hull,” entries in The Encyclopedia of Latin American History (New York: Scribners, 1996).
"Franklin D. Roosevelt," Encyclopedia of American Studies (Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2005).
Book Reviews
I have reviewed for the Washington Post, The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, Ohio History, Wisconsin Magazine of History, Journal of Southern History, Journal of American History, and American Historical Review.
Selected Papers/Public Presentations
"Roosevelt, Clinton, and the Hundred Days," Author's Lecture, Presidency Series, National Archives, Washington, D.C., April 29, 1993.
Discussant, "The Progressive Tradition," The Progressive Legacy Conference, University of Wisconsin—Stevens Point, February 2, 1995.
"Hale Boggs," Conference on Leaders of the House Over Two Centuries, sponsored by the Everett McKinley Dirksen Congressional Leadership Research Center," Library of Congress,
May 23, 1995.
"FDR and the Modern Presidency," Presidential Conference Series: FDR After 50 Years. Louisiana State University—Shreveport, September 16, 1995.
"A Conversation with Lindy Boggs," Conference on Southern Women and Politics and Education, Tulane University, April 19, 1996.
"Hale Boggs and the Politics of Race," Organization of American Historians, San Francisco,
April 18, 1997.
“La Follette, McCarthy, and the Progressive Origins of Anticommunism,” McCarthy in America Symposium, National Archives, February 9, 2000. Symposium sponsored by the National Archives, Eisenhower Center, and Yale University Press.
“They Sang for Roosevelt: Music and Popular Culture in the 30s,” Popular Culture Association, New Orleans, April 22, 2000.
“Franklin D. Roosevelt and the Rise of Modern Government,” National History Day Summer Institute, College Park, MD, July 14, 2000.
“The Strange Death of Young Bob La Follette,” for session on “Managing Myths and Memories: The Challenge of Historical Research,” Wisconsin Book Festival, Madison, October 10, 2003.
Discussant, Modern-day relevance of Arthur Miller's “The Crucible,” University of South Carolina, April 22, 2003.
“Young Bob La Follette and Joe McCarthy,” National Archives, Washington, D.C., May 20, 2003.
“Franklin D. Roosevelt,” Teaching of History Conference, University of North Texas,
September 20, 2003.
“The Roosevelt Presence,” Presidential Lecture Series, Minnesota Historical Society, St. Paul, December 11, 2004.
“Remembering FDR After Sixty Years,” Deep South Humanities Center, Tulane University, New Orleans, April 11, 2005.
“Democracy and War: Civil Liberties During World War I,” Teaching American History Summer Institute, Loyola University, New Orleans, June 14, 2005.
Selected Media Appearances
On-air commentator, FDR Documentary, WYES Public Television, New Orleans,
March 11-12, 1995.
Consultant and on-air commentator for "Hale Boggs: The Man, the Mission, The Mystery," television documentary produced for WLAE TV, New Orleans Public Television,
October 22, 1997.
On-air commentator for "Wisconsin Politics Over 150 Years," Wisconsin Public Television, 1997.
Interview on the Republican Party and African Americans, National Public Radio Weekend Edition with Scott Simon, National Public Radio (NPR), August 5, 2000.
Interview on the Republican Party and African Americans, Power Point, NPR, August 20, 2000.
Interview on presidential campaign of 2000, Weekend Edition with Scott Simon, NPR,
November 4, 2000.
Interview on presidential inaugural addresses, Weekend Edition with Scott Simon, NPR,
January 20, 2001.
Interviewed by Scott Simon and Elizabeth Arnold on President Bush’s inaugural address, NPR,
January 20, 2001.
Interview on FDR and Music, Weekend Edition with Scott Simon, NPR, April 21, 2001.
Commentary, “The Outmoded Hundred Days Standard,” All Things Considered, NPR,
April 30, 2001.
Interview on “The Vanishing Generation,” World War II documentary, South Carolina Educational TV, November 2006.
Interview on “Lindy Boggs: Steel and Velvet,” documentary, Louisiana Educational TV, November 2006.
Selected Service Activities
University of South Carolina
Provost’s Palmetto Task Force, 2001.
Faculty Advisory Committee (Vice President for Research), 2001-2002.
Co-chair, Select Committee on Proposed Merger of College of Liberal Arts
and the College of Math and Science, 2004.
Member, Search Committee for Film Historian/Film Curator, 2005-2006.
Chair, Committee to Evaluate the Dean of the School of Education, 2005-2006.
Tulane University
In addition to serving as chair at Tulane, I was involved in most aspects of departmental administration, from executive committee membership to heading major searches to supervising graduate student teaching. I also served on key university-wide committees at critical times, such as the Educational Policy Committee when it formulated course evaluation policy and oversaw the merger of Newcomb, the coordinate women's college, with Tulane.
Other Major Activities
Expert Witness, U.S. v. New Roads, LA, (Voting Discrimination Case), 1997.
Member, South Carolina Archives and History Commission, 1998-Present.
Current Research
I am currently under contract to write a book on the Clinton presidency.