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Ross Kennedy

Professor & Chair
History
Office
SCH Schroeder Hall 301
Office Hours
By appointment.
  • About
  • Education
  • Awards & Honors
  • Research

Biography

Award-winning author of The Will to Believe: Woodrow Wilson, World War I, and America's Strategy for Peace and Security (2009) and editor of A Companion to Woodrow Wilson (2013).

Current Courses

499.001Independent Research For The Master's Thesis

400.001Independent Study

490.001Readings -- Field Of Study

291.001Undergraduate Teaching Experience In History

100.001History Lab: Foundations of Historical Analysis

499.001Independent Research For The Master's Thesis

287.001Independent Study

400.001Independent Study

490.001Readings -- Field Of Study

Teaching Interests & Areas

Twentieth-century American foreign relations and political ideology; international history 1914-65.

Research Interests & Areas

World War I; Woodrow Wilson; U.S. foreign relations; international history 1914-65.

Ph D History

University of California, Berkeley
Berkeley, CA

OAH Distinguished Lecturer

Organization of American Historians
2017

ISU-CAS Outstanding Service Award

ISU-College of Arts and Sciences
2015

ISU- CTLT DART Program

ISU-Center for Teaching, Learning and Technology
2015

ISU Leadership Initiative

ISU- Office of the Provost
2015

Outstanding College Researcher Award

History Department Nominee -- CAS
2014

Scott Bills Prize for Best Book in Peace History

Peace History Society
2010

Book Review

Kennedy, R. Review of Kaiga, Britain and the Intellectual Origins of the League of Nations. Peace & Change (2024)
Ross A. Kennedy, "Review of Justin Quinn Olmstead, The United States' Entry into the First World War," War in History 28:1 (January 2021).
Kennedy, R. Geoffrey Wawro, Sons of Freedom: The Forgotten American Soldiers Who Defeated Germany in World War I. Heather Perry (EDs). First World War Studies 10.2-3 (2019): 283-84.
Kennedy, R. Review of O'Toole, Patricia, The Moralist: Woodrow Wilson and the World He Made.. Seth Offenbach (EDs). H-Net Reviews/H-Diplo (2019): 4.
Ross A. Kennedy, "Review of Trygve Throntveit, Power Without Victory," H-Diplo Roundtable Reviews 20:4 (September 24, 2018).

Book, Authored

The Will to Believe: Woodrow Wilson, World War I, and America’s Strategy for Peace and Security. Kent State University Press, 2009, New Studies in U.S. Foreign Relations Series. Winner of the Scott Bills Memorial Prize, Peace History Society.

Book, Chapter

Kennedy, R. "Mobilizing for the Great War". John M. Giggie and Andrew Huebner (EDs), Dixie's Great War. University of Alabama Press (2020): 13-33.
Kennedy, R. "Wilson's Wartime Diplomacy: The United States and the First World War, 1914-1918". Christopher Dietrich (EDs), A Companion to U.S. Foreign Relations, Colonial Era to the Present". Wiley-Blackwell (2020)
Ross A. Kennedy, "The United States and Britain's Victory," in Peter Liddle, ed., Britain and Victory in the Great War (Pen & Sword Books, UK, 2018).
"The American Experience during World War I," in Jon Butler, et al. eds., Oxford Research Encyclopedia of American History, 2016. americanhistory.oxfordre.com
Kennedy, R. "Introduction.". Ivan Dee (EDs), Woodrow Wilson: Facing an Economic Revolution. Now and Then (2015)

Journal Article

Ross A. Kennedy, "Four New Takes on Wilson, World War I, and the Making of the Post-War Order," Journal of Strategic Studies 41:7 (December 2018), 1058-70.
Ross A. Kennedy, "Strategic Calculations in Woodrow Wilson's Neutrality Policy, 1914-1917," Journal of the Gilded Age and Progressive Era 17:4 (October 2018), 608-18.
"'A Net of Intrigue and Selfish Rivalry': Woodrow Wilson and Power Politics during World War I," Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society 159 (June 2015), 1-6.
"Peace Progressives and American Neutralism, 1914-1917," Dimensioni e problemi della ricerca storica (2015), pp. 67-90.
JAH Interchange: Reconsidering America’s First World War,” co-authored with Christopher Capozzola, Andrew Huebner, Julia Irwin, Jennifer Keene, Michael Neiberg, Stephen Ortiz, and Jay Winter, Journal of American History, September 2015.

Presentations

"Liberal Internationalism and U.S. National Security Debates in the 1920s". Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations 2020 Conference. Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations. (2020)
"A Commitment to Judge: Woodrow Wilson's Conception of Collective Security Under the League of Nations.". A century of Internationalisms: The Promise and Legacies of the League of Nations. Diplomatic Institute/Portuguese Ministry for Foreign Affairs. (2019)
"'The Greatest Hypocrite in History': Woodrow Wilson, U.S. Policy toward German Democracy, and the De-legitimation of the Versailles Treaty". International Conference on the Peace treaties (1918-1923). Sorbonne University and University of Nantes. (2019)
"A Divided Land: World War I and American Domestic Politics". "World War I Symposium". Rockford University and Midway Village Museum. (2018)
"The United States and the End of World War I.". History Alive and Armistice Day Celebration. State Historical Society of Iowa. (2018)
"Woodrow Wilson and the Impact of the United States on World War I". International Studies Seminar. Illinois State University. (2018)
"Woodrow Wilson and the Impact of the United States on World War I". Vincent Howard and James P and Mary C. Sczepaniak Lectures. (2018)
The American Neutralism and Wilsonianism. Le Due Neutralita: Italia e Stati Uniti di fronte alla Prima Guerra Mondiale. Venice Foundation. (2015)
A Net of Intrigue and Selfish Rivalry: Woodrow Wilson and Power Politics. American Philosphical Society Spring Meeting. American Philosophical Society. (2014)
State of the Field: Reassessing American Involvement in World War I -- Wilson and Diplomacy. Organization of American Historians Annual Meeting. Organization of American Historians. (2014)

Grants & Contracts

"U.S. Foreign Relations, 1890-1945," Oxford Handbook of American Foreign Relations. Oxford University Press. Private. (2014)