Robert P. Watson, Ph.D.

Robert Watson is an award-winning author who has published over 40 books and roughly 200 scholarly articles, chapters, and essays on topics in history and politics, as well as two multi-edition, multi-volume encyclopedia sets on the presidents and first ladies. His recent books include Affairs of State (2012), America’s First Crisis (2014), The Presidents’ Wives (2014, 2nd ed.), The Nazi Titanic (2016), The Ghost Ship of Brooklyn (2017), George Washington’s Final Battle (2021), Escape (2021), a story about a notorious Confederate Prison and the Union soldiers who broke out, and the forthcoming books When Washington Burned (2022) and Plague, a story about the 1793 yellow fever outbreak that struck the capital city. His books have won the John Barry Book Award, John Lyman Book Award, Independent Publishers’ Gold Medal in History, and others, have been published in international translation, and featured on C-SPAN’s Book TV and at prominent literary festivals around the country.

A frequent media commentator, Watson has been interviewed thousands of times by news outlets around the world, including CNN, MSNBC, USA Today, The New York Times, NPR, and the BBC, and has appeared on Hardball with Chris Matthews, The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, and C-SPAN’s American History TV and The Washington Journal. He was a Sunday columnist for the Sun-Sentinel newspaper and political analyst for WPTV 5 (NBC), a regular guest on such outlets as WPBT 2 (PBS), WIOD 610 AM, WFTL 850 AM, RTE 1 Ireland, and the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, and a commentator and researcher for several TV documentaries, including the series “Secret Nazi Bases” for the Science and Discovery Channels and “Drain the Oceans” for the National Geographic Channel.

Dr. Watson co-convened several national conferences, co-founded the annual Truman Legacy Symposium for the Truman Presidential Library, and served on the boards of numerous academic associations, community organizations, and the Harry S. Truman Foundation, Calvin Coolidge Foundation, and George McGovern Center for Leadership. Watson also served as the editor of the scholarly journal White House Studies, the assistant editor and book review editor of The Social Science Journal, and the “Presidency Series” editor for the State University of New York Press, and has been a visiting scholar with such historic sites as the Truman Presidential Library, Gerald Ford Presidential Museum, Illinois Holocaust Museum, US Military Academy (West Point), National Archives, Smithsonian Institution, Pentagon, Museum of the American Revolution, American Revolution Institute, National Museum of the US Navy, George Washington’s Mount Vernon, Society of the Cincinnati, James Madison’s Montpelier, Fraunces Tavern Museum, and the Truman Little White House, to name a few. He is also one of a select group of historians invited every few years to rank the presidents.

As a community leader, Professor Watson has hosted many voter registration drives, mock elections and civic education programs for schools, and workshops for social studies teachers, and served as a judge for History Day contests, pronouncer for spelling bees, and moderator for political debates and community town halls. He co-founded three non-profits dedicated to civic engagement, political reform, and fact-checking political ads and, with his teenage son, hosted an annual writing contest for five years for students in southeast Florida called “Let’s Write Together.” Watson has delivered roughly 2,000 lectures to libraries, museums, historic sites, community groups, and corporate conventions around the world, is a popular lecturer with One Day University and on board luxury cruise ships, and has led “study tours” to historic sites around the U.S. and internationally.

Watson is the recipient of many awards for his contributions to the study of the presidency, election commentary, community service, civics programs, and efforts to combat anti-Semitism and incivility. He has won the campus service, research and scholarship, and “Professor of the Year” awards multiple times at both Florida Atlantic University and Lynn University, and has been inducted into two sports halls of fame. Robert was born in Harrisburg, attended public schools in nearby Hershey, and was educated at Virginia Tech, where he lettered on the football and track teams. He holds the titles Distinguished Professor of American History and Avron Fogelman Research Professor, and is also Director of Project Civitas at Lynn University and Senior Fellow with Senator Bob Graham’s Florida Joint Center for Citizenship. He is the proud father of Alexander and Isabella.