Raymond P. Ojserkis

Biography

Raymond P. Ojserkis is a historian and lecturer at Rutgers University where he teaches courses on boom/bust cycles, American economic history, 20th century Europe, World War I & II, the Cold War, and the history of Western civilization.

He has also held teaching positions at CUNY, Lehman College, Long Island University, and Marymount Manhattan College.

He is the author of Beginnings of the Cold War Arms Race: The Truman Administration and the Arms Build-Up, which explores the Truman administration’s decision to engage in a massive arms build-up that initiated the Cold War arms race.

Interviews

Raymond Ojserkis On The Causes And Consequences Of Speculative Bubbles & Whether Central Banks Should Try To Burst Them. June 4, 2025.

Conference Papers, Guest Lectures, and Presentations

“Using Diplomatic Tactics to Expand China’s Influence: Changes in China’s Foreign Policy, 1954-55.” Chaired panel at American Historical Association Annual Meeting, January 2011.

“Bush Administration and Obama Administration Policies Concerning the 2008 Credit Crisis”, Guest Lecture in Professor Frank Jonas and Professor Diana Klebanow’s Presidential Leadership in Times of Crisis course, Long Island University, December 2009.

“New Evidence on Sino-American Relations from Rapprochement to Normalization.” Chaired panel at American Historical Association Annual Meeting, January 2009.

“The Presidential Style of Harry S. Truman.” Guest Lecture in Professor Diana Klebanow’s Presidential Styles course, Long Island University, September, 2007.

“The Truman Administration’s Appraisal of the Soviet Military Threat in Europe, 1948–50.” Paper presented at Army Center of Military History Conference, June 1996.

“The United States Arms Build-up of 1950-51”. Presentation at London School of Economics International History Graduate Student Seminar, February 1996.

Education

Ph.D. International History, London School of Economics

M.Sc. International History, London School of Economics

B.S. Economics, Lehigh University

Institutions

Rutgers University

CUNY, Lehman College

Long Island University

Marymount Manhattan College

Field

History

Topics

Speculative Bubbles

Economic History

20th and 21st Century Diplomatic History