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Jonathan Bean is a Research Fellow at the Independent Institute and Professor of History at Southern Illinois University. He received his Ph.D. in Business History from the Ohio State University in 1994. Bean is the editor of the Institute book Race and Liberty in America: The Essential Reader, that received praise from Choice (American Library Association) and Diverse Issues in Higher Education (formerly Black Issues in Higher Education).

Bean is a Member of the Illinois State Advisory Panel for the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights and a Member of the Academic Hall of Fame at St. Michael’s College. He is the recipient of the Henry Adams Prize for Best Book of the Year from the Society for History in the Federal Government and the Herman E. Krooss Prize from the Business History Conference. Bean was named Outstanding Teacher of the Year at Southern Illinois University in 2005. He has testified before the U.S. Senate on corruption in government contracting, consulted for the Japanese government, and served as an expert witness in two landmark court cases.

He was the Senior Editor for H-Business, an on-line journal for business historians, and his other books include Beyond the Broker State: Federal Policies Toward Small Business, 1936-1961 (1996) and Big Government and Affirmative Action: The Scandalous History of the Small Business Administration (2001). His scholarly articles have appeared in such journals as The Independent Review, Southern Illinois University Law Journal, Continuity, Business and Economic History, Journal of Policy History, Choice, Enterprise and Society, Business History Review, National Social Science Perspectives Journal, Ohio History, The Historian, Ohio History, Continuity, Business and Economic History, Choice, African American National Biography, American National Biography, and the Encyclopedia of American Business History.

His popular articles, interviews and investigative work have appeared in print or on air with a wide range of media outlets: NPR, Fox, CBS, C-Span, U.S. News & World Report, Newsweek, Washington Times, Christian Science Monitor, National Review, Weekly Standard, Mother Jones, Salon, McClatchy-Tribune (syndicated columns), Business Week, Forbes, Fortune Small Business, Chronicle of Higher Education, American Banker, Commercial Real Estate, and Good Society. During the 2008 presidential race, Bean served as nonpartisan election analyst for Correio Braziliense, a major Brazilian newspaper. He has also been interviewed by dozens of radio stations.