Faculty Bio

Michael W. Flamm

Professor of History

Education

  • B.A., Harvard University
  • Ph.D., Columbia University

Profile

Michael Flamm is a scholar of modern American political history who joined the faculty in 1998. He offers a broad range of courses in U.S. history from 1877 to the present (see Courses Taught below). At Ohio Wesleyan he has received the Welch Award for Scholarly Achievement (2022) and three teaching prizes including the university’s highest honor, the Bishop Herbert Welch Meritorious Teaching Award (2012). As a Fulbright Scholar and Senior Specialist, Professor Flamm has taught numerous times in Argentina. In addition, he has served as a faculty consultant to the National Endowment for the Humanities, the College Board, and the National Academy of Sciences. He was also an elected member of the executive board of the Organization of American Historians, the largest professional association dedicated to the teaching and study of U.S. history, from 2019-2022.

Professor Flamm is the author or co-author of five books as well as numerous articles and reviews. For more information, see Major Publications and/or his curriculum vitae. He is also the creator of How 1954 Changed History (2020), an Audible original available on Amazon (see Recorded Work). For a sample, read The Conquest of Polio.

Professor Flamm is a proud Minnesotan and avid fan of the Twins, Vikings, and Timberwolves. After college he spent five years as a high school history teacher in New Jersey and New York. When Professor Flamm has the time, he enjoys tennis, skiing, travel, jazz, theater, and films of all kinds. He also likes to read contemporary, classic, and historical fiction as well as mystery novels. To learn more, visit Facebook and LinkedIn.

Major Publications

Courses Taught

  • History 114:  Introduction to Modern America
  • History 160:  America in the Sixties
  • History 250:  Historical Inquiry
  • History 286:  American Foreign Relations Since 1917
  • History 287:  America and Vietnam
  • History 376:  The Emergence of Modern America, 1877-1929
  • History 377:  The Transformation of Modern America, 1929-1960
  • History 378:  The Challenges of Modern America, 1960-2008
  • History 385A:  Crime and Punishment in Modern America
  • History 385B:  Women and Gender in Modern America
  • History 385C:  History and Fiction in Modern America

Areas of Interest / Expertise

  • The Political Culture of the 1960s
  • Crime and Disorder in the 1960s
  • The U.S. and Vietnam

Recipient of the 2022 Welch Award for Scholarly or Artistic Achievement and the 2012 Bishop Herbert Welch Meritorious Teaching Award

Recorded Work

How 1954 Changed History

Every year has its share of notable events, but 1954 was exceptional. It began in January with a celebrity marriage heard round the world and then progressed through a series of major political, social, and cultural milestones that would echo through the next several decades.

In ten short lectures, you will return to a pivotal year as Professor Michael Flamm takes you through the battle against polio, the Red Scare that gripped the nation, the domestic impact of foreign conflicts, and the groundbreaking case of Brown v. Board of Education. As you look at these events and much more, you will see how 1954 showcases both some of the best and some of the worst times of 20th-century America.

Click here for more information.

Images of 1954

From the Army-McCarthy Hearings and Brown v. Board of Education to the emergence of Elvis Presley in Memphis and the defeat of French forces in Vietnam, 1954 was a truly pivotal year.

Recent Work

The New York Riots of 1964 and the War on Crime

This book is the first full-scale study of a pivotal week in July 1964, when peaceful protests and violent actions collided in Harlem and Brooklyn, law and order emerged in national politics, and the freedom struggle reached a crossroads. The following year the War on Crime was set in motion, with fateful implications for the prison and policing debates of today.

In Harlem, the symbolic and historic heart of black America, the racial unrest highlighted a new dynamic in national politics. The first "long, hot summer" of the Sixties had arrived, sending shock waves across the country and casting a shadow over the presidential contest between Republican Barry Goldwater and Democrat Lyndon Johnson.

Click here for more information.

Critical Praise

Noted historians offer acclaim for "In the Heat of the Summer"

Michael Kazin

Georgetown University

"In the Heat of the Summer is not simply the best history ever written about race and urban violence in the 1960s. It brilliantly reveals the roots of the ongoing mistrust between police and African-Americans. And Michael Flamm's vivid narrative is hard to put down."

David Farber

University of Kansas

"Michael Flamm has written a searing account of the 1964 New York City riots, the first of the many violent uprisings that galvanized the United States in the 1960s. Flamm's riveting history of black anger, police misconduct, and the politics of law and order sets the stage for today's debates over incarceration, police-community relations, and the struggle for racial justice in the United States."

Wil Haygood

Author of Showdown: Thurgood Marshall and the Supreme Court Nomination that Changed America

"Until now, the 1964 Harlem Riot has not been properly fixed in American and literary lore. Michael Flamm's riveting retelling of the saga—against the backdrop of a single black teenage death and replete with the journalists, politicians, and activists who were there—fills the missing gap in a work that is necessary, and unbelievably timely."

Laura Kalman

University of California, Santa Barbara

"This moving and insightful book takes us back to the fateful summer of 1964 when law and order moved to the center of political discourse. It tells the story of the Harlem riot or uprising from the viewpoint of all participants with verve, empathy and grace."

Alan Brinkley

Columbia University

"Michael Flamm's important book gives us the first detailed look at the event that ignited the long, hot summers of the 1960s. Flamm provides us with rich portraits of the politicians, officers, community leaders, and hard-working people in the neighborhoods who were affected by the riots. This remarkable book brilliantly tackles the tangled nexus of race and criminal justice that is at the core of this history and continues to be its legacy."