Barbara A. Perry

Barbara Ann Perry is a presidency and U.S. Supreme Court expert, as well as a biographer of the Kennedys. She is also the J. Wilson Newman Professor in Presidential Studies at the University of Virginia's Miller Center, where she co-chairs the Presidential Oral History Program. As an oral historian, Perry has conducted more than 160 interviews for the George H. W. Bush, Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, Barack Obama, Donald Trump, and Joe Biden Presidential Oral History Projects and directed the Edward Kennedy Oral History Project.

Early life and education Perry was born in Louisville, Kentucky.

Perry has authored or edited 17 books and has lectured to public audiences across the country, in the UK and Ireland, and in numerous teacher institutes, sponsored by the Supreme Court Summer Institute, Street Law, and the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History. She also served as an adjunct professor at the Federal Executive Institute in Charlottesville, Virginia, and provided seminars for the Aspen Institute and the New York Historical Society. Her topics have included Supreme Court appointments, John F. Kennedy, the presidency, political leadership, First Ladies, the Kennedy family, and civil rights and liberties.

Perry is a member of the Board of Directors of the White House Historical Association, the Supreme Court Historical Society, the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library Foundation Advisory Board, and the Friends of the John F. Kennedy National Historical Site. She chairs the Steering Committee for the Henry J. Abraham Distinguished Lecture, held each year at the University of Virginia.

Perry frequently provides political analysis of and historical context for current public affairs to media outlets throughout the nation and the world, appearing as a quoted expert in newspaper features, providing radio and television interviews, and writing op-eds. She regularly contributes to the University of Virginia's blog, “Thoughts from the Lawn.”

Works

A "Representative" Supreme Court? The Impact of Race, Religion, and Gender on Appointments (Greenwood 1991) The Priestly Tribe: The Supreme Court's Image in the American Mind (Praeger 1999; winner of a 2001 Choice Award) Freedom and the Court: Civil Rights and Liberties in the United States, 8th edition (with Henry J. Abraham, University Press of Kansas 2003) Jacqueline Kennedy: First Lady of the New Frontier (University Press of Kansas 2004) The Michigan Affirmative Action Cases (University Press of Kansas 2007) The Supremes: An Introduction to the United States Supreme Court Justices, 2nd ed. (Peter Lang 2009) Rose Kennedy: The Life and Times of a Political Matriarch (W.W. Norton 2013) 41: Inside the Presidency of George H.W. Bush (edited with Michael Nelson; Cornell University Press 2014) 42: Inside the Presidency of Bill Clinton (edited with Michael Nelson and Russell Riley; Cornell University Press 2016) Edward Kennedy: An Oral History (Oxford University Press, 2019)

Awards 1994-1995 Supreme Court Fellows’ Tom C. Clark Award.