RAYMOND ARSENAULT

Dr. Raymond Arsenault is a professor of southern history at the University of South Florida, St. Petersburg campus.

Raymond Arsenault

He specializes in the social, political and environmental history of the American South, and has carved a special niche among Florida authors for this kind of writing.

His best known book may be Freedom Riders about the 1961 Freedom Rides, an important chapter in the Civil Rights movement of the 1960's.

He has served as a consultant for numerous museums and public institutions including the National Park Service and the National Civil Rights Museum.

He has lectured on American history and culture in many foreign countries.

He specializes in the social, political and environmental history of the American South.

His best known book may be Freedom Riders about the 1961 Freedom Rides, an important chapter in the Civil Rights movement of the 1960's.

Since 1996 he and USF history professor and colleague Gary Mormino have worked together as Florida authors and served as the co-editors of the University Press of Florida’s highly acclaimed “Florida History and Culture” book series.

Dr. Arsenault is an active member of the Florida affiliate of the American Civil Liberties Union, and served two terms as state president and received the Nelson Poynter Civil Liberties Award in 2003.

Even more than most university professors and other Florida authors, he has published numerous books,papers and articles.

His best known works include the following:

• (1984) The Wild Ass of the Ozarks (about President Jefferson Davis of the Confederate States of America)
  
  
• (1984) The End of the Long Hot Summer: The Air Conditioner and Southern Culture (Journal of Southern History)
  
  
• (1988) St. Petersburg and the Florida Dream, 1888-1950
  
  
• (2005) Paradise Lost? (about the environmental history of Florida
  
  
• (2006) Freedom Riders: 1961 and the Struggle for Racial Justice
  
  
• (2010) The Sound of Freedom. (Scheduled to be released in January, 2010.)