# Larry Schweikart

Larry Earl Schweikart (/ˈʃwaɪkərt/; born April 21, 1951) is an American historian and retired professor of history at the University of Dayton. During the 1980s and 1990s, he authored numerous scholarly publications. In recent years, he has authored popular books, including A Patriot's History of the United States (2004) and 48 Liberal Lies About American History. According to professors Guy Burton and Ted Goertzel, "Schweikart and Allen are both history professors with distinguished publication records."

## Early life and education

Larry Schweikart was born in 1951 in Mesa, Arizona to a cattle ranching family and lived in Higley until his father Earl died in 1960. After his father's death, Larry and his mother moved to a house in Chandler, Arizona, that Earl had already purchased.
Beginning in high school, Schweikart played drums for rock bands, even though he could not read music. Schweikart graduated from Chandler High School in 1968 and Arizona State University in 1972 with a B.A. in political science. Schweikart had a C average at Arizona State; by his own admission: "The whole time I was racing cars and playing rock 'n roll music and paid no attention to my grades."
From 1975 to 1976, Schweikart performed for the band Rampage, which opened for Steppenwolf among others. Rampage also released a single, "Didn't Want to Have to Say Goodbye to You", that was praised by Record World.
Feeling "tired of the road", Schweikart returned to Arizona in 1977, became a middle school English teacher in Eloy, and enrolled in graduate school at Arizona State. Schweikart continued playing drums at nightclubs during his graduate school years. At Arizona State, Schweikart wrote a national Phi Alpha Theta prize-winning article on the Peary diaries and wrote a pamphlet on the history of banking in Arizona. He received his M.A. in History in 1980. Schweikart also retired from drumming in 1980, concerned about possible hearing loss.
He then received a Ph.D. in History from the University of California, Santa Barbara in 1983. His doctoral dissertation was Banking in the American South, 1836-1865.

## Career

Schweikart took a one-year position at the University of Wisconsin–Platteville Richland in 1984 as instructor in U.S. history, focusing on business history. In 1985, he became an associate professor at the University of Dayton, earning a promotion to full professor in 1995. At Dayton, Schweikart taught courses on the Civil War and economic, business, and military history in the U.S. He was awarded the University of Dayton Alumni Award for Scholarship for the 1988–89 academic year. Schweikart retired in 2016.
In 1999 he published a history of American business, The Entrepreneurial Adventure. In 2004 he co-authored the book A Patriot's History of the United States with Michael Allen. In 2006, he published America's Victories. In 2006, he published 48 Liberal Lies About American History.
Schweikart is active on Twitter, operating under various accounts and commenting on political matters, sometimes engaging in arguments with other users. During the 2018 United States elections, he claimed that then-Congressman Beto O'Rourke was sending busloads of illegal immigrants to polling booths and paying them $100 to vote.
In December 2020, President Donald Trump appointed Schweikart to the Board of Directors of the National Board for Education Sciences, which advises leaders of the Department of Education's research division.