John M. Cooper is Professor Emeritus in the Department of History at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He earned an A.B. from Princeton University, an M.A. in 1962, and a Ph.D. in 1968, both from Columbia University. Cooper began his academic career with positions from instructor to assistant professor from 1965 to 1970 before joining the University of Wisconsin-Madison History Department in 1970 as an assistant professor. He advanced to associate professor in 1974 and full professor thereafter, holding the E. Gordon Fox Professorship of American Institutions. He served as department chair and as a member of the Board of Curators of the State Historical Society of Wisconsin starting in 1991.

His specializations encompass late 19th- and early 20th-century American political history and the South, with research and teaching interests in late 19th- and 20th-century America, American foreign policy, Civil War and Reconstruction, Southern history, 20th-century American wars, race, and reform. Current research focuses on presidential reputations in 20th-century America and the League of Nations fight. Key publications include The Warrior and the Priest: Woodrow Wilson and Theodore Roosevelt (Harvard University Press, 1983), Pivotal Decades: The United States, 1900-1920 (W.W. Norton, 1990), The Wilson Era: Essays in Honor of Arthur S. Link (co-editor, Harlan Davidson, 1990), Breaking the Heart of the World: Woodrow Wilson and the Fight for the League of Nations (Cambridge University Press, 2001), and Woodrow Wilson: A Biography (Knopf, 2009), a Pulitzer Prize finalist in Biography. Cooper received a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1979 and a National Endowment for the Humanities fellowship in 1969-1970. He taught courses such as History 395 (United States, 1877-1914), History 397 (United States, 1914-1945), History 600 advanced seminars, and History 901 studies in American history. His scholarship has shaped understandings of the Progressive Era, Woodrow Wilson, Theodore Roosevelt, and U.S. foreign relations.

Professional Email: jmcooper@wisc.edu