Position Title
Professor
Education
- Ph.D., History, UC Davis, 1993
- B.A., History with honors and distinction, Stanford University, 1985
About
- Professor of history, 2005-present
- Interim chair, Gender, Sexuality, and Women's Studies, 2018-June 2023
- Chair, history department, 2013-2016
- Associate professor of history, 2003-2005
- Assistant professor of history, 2001-2003
- Lecturer in history, 1993-2001
Research Focus
Kathryn Olmsted studies the cultural and political history of the United States since World War I. Her first book, Challenging the Secret Government, examined the congressional and journalistic investigations of the CIA and FBI after Watergate, while her second book, Red Spy Queen, analyzed the origins and significance of the spy scare of the 1940s. Her third book, Real Enemies, explored the dynamic relationship between real government conspiracies and anti-government conspiracy theories. Right Out of California: The 1930s and the Big Business Roots of Modern Conservatism (The New Press, 2015), analyzed the conservative reaction to Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal. Her most recent book, The Newspaper Axis: Six Press Barons Who Enabled Hitler, looks at the isolationist media in the US and the UK in the 1930s and 1940s. Professor Olmsted also co-edited a book on the history of the Central Intelligence Agency and has published journal articles and book chapters that highlight her overlapping areas of expertise: conspiracy theories, government secrecy, espionage, counterintelligence, and anticommunism.
Publications
- Olmsted, Kathryn (2022). The Newspaper Axis: Six Press Barons Who Enabled Hitler. Yale University Press.
- Olmsted, Kathryn (2015) Right Out of California: The Big Business Roots of Modern Conservatism. The New Press.
- Olmsted, Kathryn (2009) Real Enemies: Conspiracy Theories and American Democracy, World War I to 9/11. Oxford University Press.
- Olmsted, Kathryn (2002) Red Spy Queen: A Biography of Elizabeth Bentley. University of North Carolina Press.
- Olmsted, Kathryn (1996) Challenging the Secret Government: The Post-Watergate Investigations of the CIA and FBI. University of North Carolina Press.
Teaching
History 174B: America in Prosperity, Depression, and War, 1914-1945; History 174C: America since 1945; History 17B: United States since 1865; History 174D: Politics and Paranoia: Conspiracy theories in 20th century America; History 188: America in the 1960s; History 189: California History; History 176B: Social and Cultural History of the Modern United States
Awards
- Fellowship, Centre for Research in the Arts, Social Sciences, and Humanities, University of Cambridge, 2014
- Fellowship, Clare Hall, University of Cambridge, 2014
- Herbert Young Society Fellowship, UCD College of Letters and Science, 2012-15
- Excellence in Teaching Award, Phi Beta Kappa Northern California, 2009
- Academic Senate Distinguished Teaching Award, 2006
- Davis Humanities Institute Fellowship, 2006
