Several of Risjord's works are widely considered as the standard authority on the early American history of the U.S. party system.

In Virginia he attended the College of William and Mary from 1949 to 1953, where he was elected to the Phi Beta Kappa society[a] in his junior year.

In 1984 he wrote a college-level textbook titled America: A History of the United States published by Prentice Hall.

[2] For the next decade, Risjord remained lecturing at the Madison campus, until he was again the recipient of a Fulbright Scholar Lectureship, this time to Singapore in 1983–1984.

Historian Donald R. Hickey notes that his writings about the Republicans in Early American political history are considered standard works on the subject.

Risjord's works in this area include, The Old Republicans (1965), also considered a standard work on the early Republicans,[13] Southern Conservatism in the Age of Jefferson (1965); The Virginia Federalists (1967);[14] Early American Party System (1969); The Evolution of Political Parties in Virginia, 1782-1800 (1974).

Risjord asserts the general theme that differences between Federalists and Republicans were not over matters of class and wealth, that sectionalism and partisanship played a major role.

He also places emphasis on the influence of the enormous post war debts, foreign and domestic, owed by the United States.

Risjord maintains that this was a national issue that weighed on both parties equally, and was the subject of three Congressional role calls in 1783–1784.

[22][23] Representative Americans Series (Rowman & Littlefield Publishers): Norman K. Risjord published reviews in scholarly journals, and these attest to his scholarly standing in his field for over forty years of active academic life: Reviews of at least 46 published monographs in 12 scholarly journals cited in @ JSTOR search on au:("Norman Risjord"): William and Mary Quarterly (4), The New England Quarterly (2), The Mississippi Valley Historical Review (2), Journal of Southern History (13), Journal of American History (11), Wisconsin Magazine of History (5), Virginia Magazine of History and Biography (2), Political Science Quarterly, Arkansas Historical Quarterly, American Historical Review (4), Reviews in American History, and Register of the Kentucky Historical Society.

1980s-1990s, and 2001 reviews total of 16 published in 5 scholarly journals cited in @ JSTOR search on au:("Norman Risjord").