Molly Michelmore
Michelmore teaches courses on race, class and politics in postwar America, the age of Reagan, the 1960s, and the Cold War. She has researched fiscal policy and welfare state formation, as well as American political development.
Molly Michelmore
Department Head, History; Professor of History
- Newcomb Hall 103
- P: 540-458-8779
- E: michelmorem@wlu.edu
Education
- Ph.D. University of Michigan, Ann Arbor
- B.A. Amherst College, summa cum laude –– Degree in History with Highest Honors
Research
Fiscal Policy and Welfare State Formation (National and Cross-National Perspectives), American Political Development, 20th Century U.S. Political, Cultural and Social History, WWII and postwar U.S. History
Teaching
- U.S. History
- 20th Century U.S. Political, Cultural and Social History
Selected Publications
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The United States in World War II: A Documentary History. Co-edited with Mark Stoler, Hackett Press, 2018
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Tax and Spend: The Welfare State, Tax Politics and the Limits of American Liberalism. University of Pennsylvania Press, 2012.
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“No Unnecessary Burden: Taxpayers and the Politics of Work, Family, and Welfare,” Journal of Modern American History, July 2021
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“Ain’t Gonna Pay for War No More: Taxes, Resistance, and Antiwar Activism in the Pioneer Valley and Beyond,” in Amherst in the World, 2020
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“Creating the Marriage Penalty: Tax Politics, Gender and Political Realignment in 1970s America,” Journal of Women’s History, 2018
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“Tax Revolts, Tax Marches, and the Politics of Transparency in U.S. History,” Process History 2018.
- Professor Michelmore is a frequent guest on podcasts and on public radio. Her work has been cited in national media outlets, including the Washington Post, the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, Vox Media, the Huffington Post, and the New Yorker.
Current Research
Professor Michelmore’s research interests lie in 20th century American politics, and specifically in the relationship between fiscal policy, the politics of taxing and spending, and content of post-New Deal liberalism. She explored these concepts in her first book Tax and Spend: The Welfare State, Tax Politics and the Limits of American Liberalism.
Her current research project, As a Taxpayer and a Citizen: Rights, Obligations and Democracy in Modern America, builds on this work by examining how various groups, including women, African Americans, property owners, pacifists and anti-war activists, immigrants and anti-immigration activists, the poor, and gay men and women have used their political and legal identities as taxpayers to effect policy changes and to expand (or defend existing) boundaries of citizenship.