Kathryn Olmsted

Kathryn Olmsted is a professor in the History Department at the University of California, Davis. She studies the cultural and political history of the United States since World War I. Olmsted earned her Ph.D. in History from UC Davis in 1993, her M.A. in History from UC Davis in 1988, and her B.A. with honors and distinction in History from Stanford University in 1985. Her career at UC Davis includes positions as Lecturer in History from 1993 to 2000, Assistant Professor of History from 2001 to 2003, Associate Professor of History from 2003 to 2005, and Professor of History since 2005. She served as Chair of the Department of History from 2013 to 2016, Associate Dean of the Faculty for Social Sciences from 2018 to 2023, and has been Interim Chair of Gender, Sexuality, and Women’s Studies since 2018. Olmsted is a Distinguished Lecturer for the Organization of American Historians.

Olmsted is the author of five books, including The Newspaper Axis: Six Press Barons Who Enabled Hitler (Yale University Press, 2022), which received the Sperber Book Prize for the best journalism memoir or biography in 2023; Right Out of California: The 1930s and the Big Business Roots of Modern Conservatism (The New Press, 2015); Real Enemies: Conspiracy Theories and American Democracy, World War I to 9/11 (Oxford University Press, 2009); Red Spy Queen: A Biography of Elizabeth Bentley (University of North Carolina Press, 2002); and Challenging the Secret Government: The Post-Watergate Investigations of the CIA and FBI (University of North Carolina Press, 1996). She co-edited The Central Intelligence Agency: Security Under Scrutiny (Greenwood Press, 2006). Her articles have appeared in journals including Pacific Historical Review, Journal of Contemporary History, Diplomatic History, Modern American History, and Journal of Policy History. Olmsted has received the Distinguished Teaching Award from the UC Davis Academic Senate in 2006, the Excellence in Teaching Award from Northern California Phi Beta Kappa in 2009, a Fellowship from Clare Hall at the University of Cambridge in 2014, the Herbert Young Society Fellowship from 2012 to 2015, the Davis Humanities Institute Fellowship in 2005-2006, and the Faculty Development Award in 2005. She has served on the University of California Press Editorial Committee since 2017 and chaired various UC Davis Academic Senate committees, including the Committee on Research from 2011 to 2013.

Professional Email: ksolmsted@ucdavis.edu