Jonathan Bean | Humanities and Social Sciences | SIU

Jonathan Bean is a Research Fellow at the Independent Institute and a Professor of History at Southern Illinois University. He received his Ph.D. in Business History from the Ohio State University in 1994. Bean is the author of Race and Liberty in America: The Essential Reader, which received praise from Choice (American Library Association) and Diverse Issues in Higher Education (formerly Black Issues in Higher Education).

His other books include Beyond the Broker State: Federal Policies Toward Small Business, 1936-1961 (1996); Big Government and Affirmative Action: The Scandalous History of the Small Business Administration (2001); and Opposing Viewpoints in U.S. History (2018). His scholarly publications have appeared in such journals as The Independent Review, Journal of Policy History, Enterprise and Society, Business History Review, Choice, Southern Illinois University Law Journal, Continuity, Business and Economic History, National Social Science Perspectives Journal, Ohio History, The Historian, Continuity, Business and Economic History, African American National Biography, American National Biography, and the Encyclopedia of American Business History.

His popular articles, interviews, and investigative work have appeared in print or on air with a wide range of media outlets: NPR, Wall Street Journal, The Hill, Fox, CBS, C-Span, U.S. News & World Report, USA Today, Newsweek, Christian Science Monitor, Real Clear Investigations, Market Watch Reporters, Mother Jones, Salon, National Review, Weekly Standard, Washington Times, Washington Examiner, Daily Caller, McClatchy-Tribune (syndicated columns), Tribune Service (syndicated), Business Week, Forbes, Fortune Small Business, Chronicle of Higher Education, American Banker, Commercial Real Estate, and Good Society. During the 2008 presidential race, Bean was a nonpartisan election analyst for Correio Braziliense, a major Brazilian newspaper. Dozens of radio stations have also interviewed him.

Bean was a Member of the Illinois State Advisory Panel for the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights (2011-2023) and is a Member of the Academic Hall of Fame at St. Michael’s College. He received the Henry Adams Prize for Best Book of the Year from the Society for History in the Federal Government and the Herman E. Krooss Prize from the Business History Conference. Bean was named Outstanding Teacher of the Year at Southern Illinois University in 2005. In 2017, Southern Illinois University awarded Bean the Graduate Faculty Mentor Award of Excellence for his work with M.A. and Ph.D. students. He has testified before the U.S. Senate on corruption in government contracting, consulted for the Japanese government, and served as an expert in court cases involving corporate litigation and a successful civil rights challenge to discrimination by the Small Business Administration.

Starting with the scholarly network H-Business in 1990 and continuing through online instruction from the 1990s to the present, Bean has been active in online education. He served on the Chancellor’s Advisory Committee on Distance Education to align the university’s online courses with the Higher Learning Commission’s demand for interaction between students and instructors. He has authored a peer-reviewed interactive text, Opposing Viewpoints in U.S. History (2018), that uses primary sources, short videos, and other elements to engage students in the reading and discussing past controversies.