Joseph R. Conlin (born January 7, 1940) is an American historian and academic who in 1995 retired amid controversy from his duties as professor of American history at California State University at Chico.
He was a Fulbright Professor in Rome and Salzburg and was twice Visiting Senior Lecturer at the Social History Centre at Warwick University, England.
For nearly three decades, he taught one to four sections of United States history per term.
Several of his essays and one book received awards for "best of the year" from professional associations.
The University of Washington's Labor Press Project wrote: Joseph R. Conlin's compilation, The American Radical Press, 1880-1960, remains an important source for radical newspapers... Joseph Conlin's discussion of the Socialist Party Monthly Bulletin (1904-1913) and The Party Builder (1912-1914), argues that these internal newsletters should be consulted in any study of the Socialist Party because they provide administrative data and statistics instead of propaganda, but he cautions that consulting these newsletters alone would create a distorted picture of the Socialist party.