Allan J. Lichtman received his PhD from Harvard University in 1973 with a specialty in modern American history and quantitative methods. He became an Assistant Professor of History at American University in 1973 and a Full Professor in 1980, and a Distinguished Professor in 2011. He was the recipient of the Scholar/Teacher of the year award for 1992-93. He has published thirteen books and several hundred popular and scholarly articles. He has lectured in the US and internationally, providing commentary for major US and foreign networks, as well as leading newspapers and magazines worldwide. He has served as an expert witness in over 100 civil and voting rights cases. His book, White Protestant Nation: The Rise of the American Conservative Movement was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award in nonfiction. He co-authored book with Richard Breitman, FDR and the Jews, won the National Jewish Book Award Prize in American Jewish History and was a finalist for the Los Angeles Times book prize in history. His book, The Case for Impeachment was a national independent bookstore bestseller. Lichtman's prediction system, the Keys to the White House, has correctly predicted the outcomes of nearly all US presidential elections since 1984. He was listed rise.global as # 85 among 100 most influential geopolitical experts in the world and received the lifetime achievement award from Who's Who. His most recent book is Conservative at the Core: A New History of American Conservatism (Notre Dame, forthcoming Sept. 2025)
Sherman Fairchild Distinguished Visiting Scholar, California Institute of Technology, 1980-81
Top Speaker Award, National Convention of the International Platform Association, 1983, 1984, 1987
Outstanding Scholar/Teacher, The American University, 1992-93 (highest university faculty award
Organization of American Historians, Distinguished Lecturer, 2004 – present
Keynote Speaker, International Forecasting Summit, 2008
National Book Critics Circle Award Finalist, best nonfiction book, 2008, White Protestant Nation
Biographical Listing in Marquis, Who's Who in America and Who's Who in the World
Selected by the Teaching Company as one of America’s “Super Star Teachers.”
Media Appearances
CBS News on-air consultant for Dan Rather, Clinton Impeachment
Consultant and on-air commentator for NBC special productions video project on the history of the American presidency
Weekly political commentator for NBC News Nightside
Weekly political commentator for CNN Headline News, 2003-2006
Election Night commentator for BBC, 2004 and 2008 presidential elections
Inauguration commentator for Voice of America, 2009
Election-year columnist for Reuters, 1996 & 2000
More than 2,000 interviews on television and radio networks including NBC, CBS, ABC, CNN, MSNBC, FOX, BBC, CBC, VOA, and other media outlets worldwide.
More than 500 print interviews in New York Times, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, Time, Newsweek, and other publications worldwide.
Columnist, Montgomery Gazette, 1990-present
Work In Progress
New book, FDR and the Jews, with Richard Breitman, under contract, Harvard University Press
Professional Presentations
Delegation Head, Delegation of Washington Area Scholars to Taiwan, Presented Paper on the promotion of democracy based on the American experience, July 1993
Feature Presentation, Predicting The Next Presidential Election, Freedom’s Foundation Seminar on the American Presidency, August 1996
Feature Presentation on the Keys to the White House, Dirksen Congressional Center, Peoria, Illinois, August, 2000
Feature Presentation on American Political History, Regional Conference of the Organization of American Historians, August 2000
Presentation to the United States Commission on Civil Rights Regarding Voting Systems and Voting Rights, January 2001
Feature Presentation, The Keys to the White House, International Symposium on Forecasting, 2006-2007
Annual Hubert Humphrey Foundation Lecture, 2007-2008
Feature Presentation, Forecasting the 2008 Election, Annual Meeting of the American Political Science Association, August 2007
Debate Participant, US Department of State Model Presidential Debates in Russia, September 2008
Featured Lecture, White Protestant Nation, Eisenhower Institute, December 2008
Selected Publications
Prejudice and the Old Politics:The Presidential Election of 1928 (Lexington Books, 2000), reprint of 1979 edition with new introduction.
Historians and the Living Past: The Theory and Practice of Historical Study (Arlington Heights, Ill.: Harlan Davidson, Inc., 1978; with Valerie French)
Ecological Inference (with Laura Irwin Langbein, Sage Series in Quantitative Applications in the Social Sciences, 1978)
The Thirteen Keys To the Presidency (Lanham: Madison Books, 1990, with Ken DeCell)
The Keys To the White House, 2008 Edition (Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield, 2008)
White Protestant Nation: The Rise of the American Conservative Movement, 2008, Grove/Atlantic Press
"Critical Election Theory and the Reality of American Presidential Politics, 1916 1940," American Historical Review (April 1976)
"Pattern Recognition Applied to Presidential Elections in the United States, 1860 1980: The Role of Integral Social, Economic, and Political Traits," Proceedings To the National Academy of Science (with V. I. Keilis Borok, November 1981)
“What Really Happened in Florida’s 2000 Presidential Election,” Journal of Legal Studies (January 2003)
“The Keys to the White House: An Index Forecast for 2008,” International Journal of Forecasting (April-June 2008)
Professional Services
Consultant and expert witness in more than 75 civil and voting rights cases in federal and state court; authoritatively cited by US Supreme Court
Redistricting and voting rights consultant to state and local governments including, Maryland, Texas, and New York City
Historical consultant to the Kin and Communities Program of the Smithsonian Institution
Consultant on voting rights to the United States Department of Justice
