
Matthew Green
Matthew Green is a professor of politics and has taught at Catholic University since 2005. He teaches a variety of courses in American politics, focusing in particular on political institutions, state and local politics, federalism, and methodology. He developed a course on recent political events called Politics in the Age of Trump, and also helped develop and co-teach the class Washington Past and Present, an interdisciplinary introduction to the city of Washington, D.C. that is unique to Catholic University.
Professor Green has written a number of books and articles about American politics. His articles have appeared in American Politics Research, Electoral Studies, Legislative Studies Quarterly, Political Research Quarterly, and other journals. Green's most recent book, Newt Gingrich: The Rise and Fall of a Party Entrepreneur (University Press of Kansas, 2022), coauthored with Jeff Crouch, uses media accounts, original interviews, and newly-uncovered archival material to explain the motivations and influence of former Congressman and Speaker Newt Gingrich.
He is co-editor of the Congressional Leadership series with University Press of Kansas and has been interviewed or provided commentary for The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, The Los Angeles Times, C-SPAN, DC News Now, and other media venues. He is also a staff writer for Mischiefs of Faction, a blog about political parties, and contributes periodically to other politics-related blogs. In 2024, he received the Stephen Schneck Award for Excellence in Social Science Research from the School of Arts and Sciences.
Read Matthew Green’s Essays

It has been said that Marbury v. Madison is the most significant case ever decided by the U.S. Supreme Court. The accolade may be overstated because the legal dispute between Marbury and Madison was left unresolved.
Political thinking in the modern democratic era easily lends itself to the reliance on simplifying labels – in other words, ideologies.
Last year I decided to fix our deck. It’s big, about 600 square feet, nine feet off the ground, and it was falling apart. Joists were rotting, and the whole thing was resting on one beam, when there should’ve been three. My foot went through the floor a couple of times.
In this essay, one of our student authors examines how Roman ideals of civic duty and freedom influenced the Federalist and Anti-Federalist debates, revealing their lasting impact on America's founding and modern democracy.
Biographer Ron Chernow explains, “Mark Twain has long been venerated as an emblem of Americana.” In this fascinating biography, Chernow explains why. Though the book runs to 1200 pp, it never becomes tedious; on the contrary, it is an enthralling read.
Until recently, anyone who believed there was anything fishy about the U.S. organ donation system was labeled a conspiracy theorist. Yet now the old adage: “What’s the difference between conspiracy and truth? About six months,” rings true again, as so-called conspiracy theorists have been proven right by none other than the federal Health and Resources Services Administration (HRSA) itself.
“War made the state,” said the political scientist Charles Tilly, “and the state made war.” Tilly was talking about actual states, but the same could be said about metaphorical states: states of mind, or perhaps of the soul.