Saladin Ambar

Saladin Ambar is an American political scientist. He is a professor of Political Science at Rutgers University, and is a Senior Scholar at the Eagleton Center on the American Governor.^[1]

Ambar taught for 18 years in New York and New Jersey public schools. In 2008, he received a PhD from Rutgers University.^[2]

In 2024, Ambar became an Associate Producer of the forthcoming film, Sagittaria, written and directed by Zach Busch. ^[3]

Books

In 2023, Ambar won the PROSE Book Award in Government and Politics from the Association of American Publishers for his Stars and Shadows: The Politics of Interracial Friendship From Jefferson to Obama (Oxford University Press 2022) https://proseawards.com/winners/2023-award-winners/

• Murder on the Mississippi: The Shocking Crimes That Shaped Abraham Lincoln (Diversion Books, 2025)^[4]
• Malcolm X at Oxford Union: Racial Politics in a Global Era (Oxford University Press, 2014)^[5][6][7]
• Stars and Shadows: The Politics of Interracial Friendship from Jefferson to Obama (Oxford University Press, 2022)^[8]
• American Cicero: Mario Cuomo and the Defense of American Liberalism (Oxford University Press, 2017)^[9]
• How Governors Built the Modern American Presidency (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2012)
• Reconsidering American Political Thought (Routledge, 2019)