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Titus L. Firmin is a historian of 20th-century U.S. military, war, and society with a focus on American politics and military affairs.

His current book project, Off-Limits, examines the intersection of civil rights and the U.S. military during the 20th-century. His manuscript explores how army and defense leaders in the United States responded to racial discrimination in housing during the 1950s and 1970s. Off-Limits argues that defense leaders’ shifting responses to housing discrimination were spurred by concerns about military effectiveness, along with pressure from civil rights activists, and limited by domestic politics and the ways in which army officers could exercise authority over American citizens. This focus on the U.S. Army expands the narrative of the civil-rights movement and sheds light on the most extensive fair housing campaign of the 20th-century. 

Firmin’s research has been supported by the Society for Military History, the Gerald R. Ford and Lyndon B. Johnson Presidential Foundations, as well as the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. Firmin has also contributed to public history projects with Kansas Humanities, the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency, and the National World War II Museum. His research has been published by the University Press of Kansas and RAND.

Firmin received his Ph.D. in American history from the University of Kansas in 2025. He holds a M.A. in military history from the University of New Orleans and a B.A. in history from Rutgers University. He currently serves in the U.S. Army National Guard as a major and has held numerous command and staff positions.