Dr Ben Quail is a historian of US social and foreign policy, whose scholarship focuses on the role of the media in portraying war to the American people. His first monograph, Selling Guns and Butter: Media Management in the Age of Lyndon Johnson, was published by Palgrave MacMillan in December 2021. It investigates the relationship between the media, Vietnam and the Presidency of Lyndon B. Johnson, and is particularly interested in the reasons behind the erosion of Johnson's credibility over the course of his time in office. 

More broadly, his interests lie in the history of American foreign relations over the past sixty years, and the propaganda of military engagements with a particular interest in the cultural impact of Vietnam on the American national consciousness. He is also keenly interested in Pacific relations, particularly between the US President and the Australian prime minister. Australia remains one of the United States' key allies in the Pacific world and a staunch military ally of the United States, as shown by the recent AUKUS trilateral agreement between the two countries and the United Kingdom. His research connects the Australian-American military and political alliance with significant personalities who have guided this throughout its recent history, for example, Prime Minister Harold Holt and President Johnson.

He is also interested in the modern cultural history of warfare in the United States and further afield, particularly depictions of warfare and veterans in music, film, video games and comic books. His most recent research article, American Idiots: Charting Protest and Activism in the Alternative Music Scene During the Presidency of George W. Bush, published in the International Journal of Comparative American Studies in 2021, is concerned with this strand of research.

First published: 1 February 2021

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Ben Quail