Charles J. Holden

Charles J. Holden is a professor of history at Saint Mary's College of Maryland, where he's taught 19th and 20th century history since 1999. His research has focused on the history of the American South and the history of academic freedom, and he's published two books on the subjects. The first, In the Great Maelstrom: Conservatives in Post-Civil War South Carolina (2002), examines the persistence of a southern conservative ideological tradition following defeat in the Civil War, while the second, The New Southern University: Academic Freedom and Liberalism at UNC (2011), looks at the emergence of the University of North Carolina as a modern southern university.

Holden is co-author of Republican Populist: Spiro Agnew and the Origins of Donald Trump’s America, published by the University of Virginia Press in 2019.

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Charles

Holden

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Reassessing Spiro Agnew, June 2020 | Vol. 65, No. 3

Although he was forced to resign as Nixon’s Vice President, Agnew’s “tough guy” persona set the precedent for subsequent anti-establishment figures including Donald Trump.

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