Robert Johnston

A professor of history at the University of Illinois Chicago, Robert Johnston specializes in U.S. history, especially the Progressive Era, post-1970 America, the history of medicine, and historiography. He also directs UIC’s Teaching of History program, reflecting a long commitment to both scholarship and teaching.

His best-known book, The Radical Middle Class: Populist Democracy and the Question of Capitalism in Progressive Era Portland, Oregon, received the President’s Book Award from the Social Science History Association. He has also edited and co-edited works on the American middle class, rural politics, and alternative medicine, and has contributed essays on democracy, labor history, and the politics of historical interpretation.

Johnston has earned major recognition as a teacher as well as a scholar. In 2020, he received the American Historical Association’s Eugene Asher Distinguished Teaching Award, and his university profile notes that he has also received several honors for excellence in teaching and graduate mentoring.