
Ted McAllister
Biography
Ted McAllister is the Edward L. Gaylord Chair and professor of public policy at Pepperdine
School of Public Policy. McAllister is an intellectual historian and brings a historical
imagination to the public policy curriculum.
In 2012- 2013 McAllister served as visiting fellow at the James Madison Program at
Princeton University. He is a recipient of the Woodrow Wilson Foundation's Charlotte
W. Newcombe Doctoral Dissertation Fellowship, received the Leland Sage Fellowship,
and several additional grants including one from the Earhart Foundation.
He most recently authored Coming Home: Reclaiming America's Conservative Soul in 2019 and co-authored Why Place Matters: Geography, Identity, and Civic Life in Modern America with Wilfred McClay. Among with his other publications, has as also authored a volume entitled Revolt Against Modernity: Leo Strauss, Eric Voegelin, and the Search for a Postliberal Order and the chapter "Reagan and the Transformation of American Conservatism" in The Reagan Presidency.
McAllister served (with Jean Bethke Elshtain and Wilfred McClay) as an editor of Rowman & Littlefield's book series, American Intellectual Culture, which are designed to produce books that examine the intersection of culture and politics in American history. At Pepperdine, he teaches the core class entitled Ethical Dimensions of Public Policy: Great Books and Great Ideas, as well as a variety of elective courses that focus on putting policy debates in larger historical and philosophical contexts, including such classes as comparative Federalism, public policy in modern America, and American democratic culture.
Education
- PhD, American Intellectual and Cultural History, Vanderbilt University
- MA, Claremont Graduate School
- BA, Oklahoma Christian College
Topics
- American Cultural History
- American Democratic Culture
- American Intellectual History
- Ethics
- Modern America
Courses
- MPP 601 Ethical Dimensions of Public Policy
- MPP 646 Public Policy and Education: Education, Democracy, and Public Deliberation
- MPP 647 Seminar in Political Issues: Public Opinion
- MPP 650 Public Policy in Modern America
- MPP 651 American Democratic Culture
- MPP 655 Contemporary American Ideologies
- MPP 671 Comparative Democracy and Federalism