Aaron G. Fountain Jr.
Historian and public scholar. Author of High School Students Unite! (UNC Press, 2025).
About Aaron G. Fountain Jr.
Aaron G. Fountain, Jr. is a historian who studies U.S. History.
He holds a Doctorate in History from Indiana University and a Bachelor of Arts in History from Winthrop University in Rock Hill, South Carolina. As of now, he currently resides in Bloomington, Indiana.
He writes and presents public talks about twentieth-century American political and social history.
His book, High School Students Unite!: Teen Activism, Education Reform, and FBI Surveillance in Postwar America, was published in 2025 by the University of North Carolina Press. On January 31, 2026, he will be speaking at Charis Books & More in Decatur, Georgia. See event page for other upcoming talks.
He has also begun his second book project, a cultural and political history of teenagers and the Vietnam War in North America, Australia, and New Zealand.
In addition to multiple academic articles, Dr. Fountain’s writing has appeared in Time, Smithsonian Magazine, Al Jazeera, The Hill, and other outlets. He has provided interviews for The Atlantic, NPR, Elle Magazine, and The Guardian, among others. His freelance essays explore themes of student activism, race and ethnicity, and online misogyny.
High School Students Unite! (UNC Press, 2025)
Teen Activism, Education Reform, and FBI Surveillance in Postwar America
Mid-twentieth-century high school students organized sit-ins, walkouts, and strikes that reshaped American education. Drawing on archival research, interviews, oral histories, and FBI records, the book highlights teenagers as powerful agents of change as they fought for constitutional rights and influenced school reform even as new security regimes formed in response to their activism.
Advance Praise
“By centering the political engagement of high school students, this book provides fresh insight into social movements and educational reform, making a vital contribution to the study of activism in times of upheaval and change.”
— Gregg L. Michel, author of Spying on Students: The FBI, Red Squads, and Student Activists in the 1960s South
“This groundbreaking book uncovers the teenage-led high school movement as a vital force in U.S. education reform. Drawing on rich archival sources, it highlights how students’ activism around civil rights, desegregation, antiwar protests, and community struggles reshaped schools—and how their efforts reverberated through broader histories of youth, race, and surveillance.”
— Carl Suddler, author of Presumed Criminal: Black Youth and the Justice System in Postwar New York
Aaron G. Fountain, Jr., PhD 