Joseph Crespino (born January 10, 1972) is a political historian of the 20th-century United States, specializing in the history of the American South and of modern conservatism.
Crespino attended Central Academy in Macon from 1977 to 1985, The McCallie School in Chattanooga, Tennessee, from 1986 to 1990, and Northwestern University (1990–1994), where he earned a bachelor of arts degree.
He has been named a Top Young Historian by the History News Network at George Mason University.
Crespino is the author of Strom Thurmond’s America (Hill and Wang, 2012), a political biography of the longtime U.S.
In 2018 he published a book on Atticus Finch, a main character in the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee.