Ronald Johnson is a Professor in the Department of History. He is a specialist in nineteenth-century (19th) American cultural history with an emphasis in gender, race, and post-Civil War culture.

He is the co-author (with Abby Arthur Johnson) of Propaganda and Aesthetics: the Literary Politics of African American Periodicals in the Twentieth Century (University of Massachusetts Press, rev. ed. 1992) and is currently working (with Abby Arthur Johnson) on a cultural history of Congressional Cemetery, Washington D.C. as the first national cemetery in the United States. Professor Johnson has served on the American Studies Committee since 1975 and as director/chair from 1979-85 and 1989 to the present.

Professor Johnson offers courses on the American cultural experience, focusing on literary developments, such as his course on "Mark Twain's America, 1870-1900," or technological and reform history as in his "Perfecting America: Reform, Technology, and Society, 1830-1900." He also teaches a course on "What Is An American? -- Studies in Cultural Identity in the United States." He has taught graduate courses on "Mark Twain and American Culture" (graduate readings colloquium) and "American Cultural History" (seminar). In addition, he teaches the first half of the United States history survey and in the core curriculum of the American Studies Program. Finally, Professor Johnson serves on the Liberal Studies Graduate Program core faculty and regularly offers courses for the program.