Robert P. Watson

Robert P. Watson (born 1962) is an American political scientist and a historian of US politics, and the author of many books on US political and military history. He is Distinguished Professor of American History and Avron Fogelman Research Professor at Lynn University.

Education and career
Watson has a bachelor's degree from Virginia Tech, a master's degree from the University of West Florida, and a Ph.D. from Florida Atlantic University.

Watson held a position at Northern Arizona University before moving to the University of Hawaiʻi at Hilo in 1997 as an assistant professor of political science. By 2006, as an associate professor of political science at Florida Atlantic University, he was named the university's 2006 Distinguished Teacher of the Year. He joined Lynn University in 2007.

Books
Watson is the author of books including:
 * The Presidents' Wives: Reassessing the Office of the First Lady (Lynne Rienner Publishers, 2000; 2nd ed., 2014)
 * First Ladies of the United States: A Biographical Dictionary (Lynne Rienner Publishers, 2001)
 * Affairs of State: The Untold History of Presidential Love, Sex, and Scandal (Rowman & Littlefield, 2012)
 * America's First Crisis: The War of 1812 (SUNY Press, 2014)
 * The Nazi Titanic: The Incredible Untold Story of a Doomed Ship in World War II (Da Capo Press, 2016)
 * The Ghost Ship of Brooklyn: An Untold Story of the American Revolution (Da Capo Press, 2017)
 * George Washington's Final Battle: The Epic Struggle to Build a Capital and Nation (Georgetown University Press, 2021)
 * Escape! The Story of the Confederacy's Infamous Libby Prison and the Civil War's Largest Jail Break (Rowman & Littlefield, 2021)
 * America's First Plague: The Deadly 1793 Epidemic that Crippled a Young Nation (Rowman & Littlefield, 2023)
 * When Washington Burned: The British Invasion of the Capital and a Nation's Rise from the Ashes (Georgetown University Press, 2023)

His edited volumes include:
 * American First Ladies (edited, Salem, 2002)
 * The Presidential Companion: Readings on the First Ladies (edited with Anthony J. Eksterowicz, University of South Carolina Press, 2003)
 * Anticipating Madam President (edited with Ann Gordon, Lynne Rienner Publishers, 2003)
 * America's War on Terror (edited with Patrick Hayden and Tom Lansford, Ashgate, 2003; 2nd ed., 2009)
 * Counting Votes: Lessons from the 2000 Presidential Election in Florida (edited, University Press of Florida, 2004)
 * George McGovern: A Political Life, a Political Legacy (edited, South Dakota State Historical Society Press, 2004)
 * Debating The War On Terrorism (edited with Tom Langsford, Kendall/Hunt, 2005)
 * Lincoln's Enduring Legacy: Perspectives from Great Thinkers, Great Leaders, and the American Experiment (edited with William D. Pederson and Frank J. Williams, Lexington Books, 2010)