Thomas Carty
Thomas Carty
Professor of History / Pre-law Advisor
- Doctor of Philosophy, University of Connecticut, Storrs, Conn., 1999
- Master of Arts, University of Connecticut, Storrs, Conn., 1993
- Bachelor of Arts, College of the Holy Cross, Worcester, Mass., 1991
Thomas Carty enjoys reading and writing about the intersection of culture, religion, and politics. His research about U.S. politics and international relations has given him the opportunity to travel throughout the United States as well as Paris, Bern, Geneva, and Zurich. At these locations, he conducted oral history interviews with government and business leaders. He also has researched in many manuscript collections at the presidential libraries of Franklin Roosevelt, Harry Truman, Dwight Eisenhower, John Kennedy, and Ronald Reagan. In the process, he has come to a greater understanding of the importance of civility and collaboration among individuals within organizations.
Selected Works
Presentations
- “Catholic Senators and Abortion Politics: The Cases of Joe Biden and Ted Kennedy,” Northeast Political Science Association conference, April 2025
- “Catholics and American Civil Religion in the 2024 Presidential Election,” Southern Political Science Association, January 2025
- “The Changing Abortion Politics of Catholic Senators Joe Biden and Ted Kennedy,” Southern Political Science Association, January 2025
- “Joe Biden and the Changing Catholic Church, 1942-1977,” New England Historical Association, Fall Meeting 2023
- “Religion and Donald Trump: The First 50 Years,” Journal of Policy History Biannual Conference, Columbus, OH, June 2023
- “Christian Zionism and The Trump Administration,” New England Historical Association, Spring Meeting 2023
- “Donald Trump: The First 50 Years,” New England Historical Association, Fall Meeting 2022
- “The ‘Green Pope’ and US presidents: Ecology and Pope Benedict XVI’s Meetings with Presidents Bush Jr. and Obama in 2008 and 2009,” New England Historical Association, Fall 2021
- “The Peace Corps and Nongovernmental Organizations since the 1960s” University of Southern Maine, New England Historical Association, Spring Meeting 2019
- “JFK’s New Frontier and the Catholic Church: An Uneasy Partnership,” New England Historical Association, Spring Meeting 2018
Publications
Popular Media
- "How John F. Kennedy Did What Al Smith Could Not," Aleteia, June 7, 2017
- “Mad Men’s Final Word on the 1960s…And Today,” (also posted on Time magazine online), March 22, 2015
- “The Risks and Rewards of the Pope’s Visit to the US,” April 30, 2008, and entered this article into the Congressional Record on May 1, 2008
Books
- Backwards, in High Heels: Faith Whittlesey, Reagan's Madam Ambassador in Switzerland and the West Wing. (Philadelphia: Casemate, 2012)
- A Catholic in the White House? Religion, Politics, and John Kennedy’s Presidential Campaign. (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2004, paperback 2008) How John F. Kennedy did what Al Smith could not
Chapters in edited books and journal articles written upon request
- “Catholics and American Civil Religion in the 2024 Presidential Election,” in Catholics and U.S. Politics After the 2024 Elections: Trump Captures the "Swing Vote, ed. Marie Gayte et al (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2025)
- “Catholic Senators and Abortion Politics: The Cases of Joe Biden and Ted Kennedy,” (with Julianna J. Thomson) in Religion and Congress: The Intersection of Faith and Politics, ed. David Dulio and Colton Campbell (Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner Publishers, 2025)
- “Joe Biden: America’s Second Catholic President,” in Religion and the American Presidency, ed. Mark Rozell and Gleaves Whitney. (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, fourth edition 2024)
- “Religion and the Presidency of Donald J. Trump,” (with Mark Rozell) in Religion and the American Presidency, ed. Mark Rozell and Gleaves Whitney. (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, fourth edition, 2024)
- “Religion and the Presidency of Donald Trump,” (with Mark Rozell) in Religion and the American Presidency: George Washington to Joe Biden, with Commentary and Primary Sources, ed. Gastón Espinosa (commissioned by editor)
- “Secular Icon or Catholic Hero? Religion and the Presidency of John F. Kennedy,” in Religion and the American Presidency, ed. Mark Rozell and Gleaves Whitney (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, first edition 2007; second edition 2012; third edition, 2018; fourth edition, 2024)
- “Protestant-Catholic Conflict in the United States: The Cases of John F. Kennedy and Ronald W. Reagan,” in Protestant-Catholic Conflict from the Reformation to the 21st Century ed. John Wolffe, (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2013)
- “John Kennedy, Religion, and Foreign Policy,” The Review of Faith and International Affairs (Dec. 2011)
- “Religion and the Presidency of John F. Kennedy” in Religion and the Presidents, ed. Gaston Espinosa (New York: Columbia University Press, 2009)
- “White House Outreach to Catholics,” in Catholics and American Politics: The Dynamic Tension Between Faith and Power ed. Kristin Heyer, Mark Rozell, and Michael Genovese (Washington, D.C.: Georgetown University Press, 2008)
- "Liberal and Libertarian Responses to John F. Kennedy’s Catholicism in the 1960 Presidential Primaries” The Historian Volume 63 No. 3 Spring 2001
- "Connecticut Catholics and John F. Kennedy's 1960 Presidential Campaign” Connecticut History Spring 2001
Encyclopedia entries
- “Catholicism, World War II to the Present,” In American Religious History: Belief and Society through Time, ed. Gary Scott Smith (ABC-CLIO, December 2020)
- “Catholicism from Reconstruction to World War II” In American Religious History: Belief and Society through Time, ed. Gary Scott Smith (ABC-CLIO, December 2020)
- “John F. Kennedy,” in Oxford University Encyclopedia of American Political, Policy, and Legal History ed. Donald Critchlow and Philip VanderMeer (March 2012)
- “Connecticut, Catholic Church in,” in The New Catholic Encyclopedia 2nd edition (Gale Group, 2011)
- "Connecticut, Catholic Church in" in The New Catholic Encyclopedia (Gale Group, 2002)
Courses Taught
- White House Leadership
- First Ladies and Presidential Elections
- American Environmental History
- World History
- Harry Potter and History
Certifications and Memberships
- Campuses for Environmental Stewardship (CES), Maine Campus Compact, 2015-2016. One of four faculty members at Springfield College to receive a grant of $4000 to embed service-learning projects within our environmentally-themed classes.
- Summer Seminar: Slave Narratives, Yale University, June 2015. Selected as one of 27 (from a pool of 83 highly competitive nominees) by the Council of Independent Colleges and Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History.
- Local Arrangements Coordinator, New England Historical Association’s (NEHA) spring conference (at Springfield College) in April 2014
- Site Evaluator, New England Association of Schools and Colleges (NEASC), visit to Gordon College, Wenham, MA, April 2012
- Book Review Editor, New England Historical Association newsletter, 2006-present
- Chairperson, New England Historical Association book award prize committee, 2009
- Visiting Scholar, invited by the Organization of American Historians and the National Park Service to serve on a team of scholars to review John F. Kennedy’s birthplace and childhood home, Brookline, MA, Summer 2006
