Peter Argersinger was born in 1944 in Lawrence, Kansas to William and Marnie Argersinger, a University of Kansas chemistry professor and the mayor of Lawrence, respectively. Argersinger received his PhD from the University of Wisconsin in 1970 and taught at the University of Maryland-Baltimore County before coming to Southern Illinois University, where he has worked since 1998. He is now a Professor Emeritus in History at Southern Illinois University in Carbondale, IL.

Argersinger's research interests have focused on the Populist movement in the United States, which originated in Kansas in the 1890s. He has also researched "New Institutionalism," U.S.-based history that focuses on the interaction of political decisions and structural constraints, publishing on such topics as ballot format, nomination procedures, gerrymandering, and election laws. His expertise in this area has led to his involvement in several cases heard before the United States Supreme Court, signing onto amicus curiae (friends of the court) briefs regarding voter suppression, ballot access, and gerrymandering. Additionally, Argersinger has studied U.S. rural history.

Argersinger was actively involved in the development of quantitative social history, which had its beginnings in the 1960s. He was a founding member of the Social Science History Association (SSHA) and of the Society for Historians of the Gilded Age and Progressive Era (SHGAPE), later serving as SHGAPE's president. He has also co-authored a major university textbook in U.S. history.

Publications Argersinger has written by himself or co-authored include Populism and Politics: William Alfred Peffer and the People’s Party (1974); Populism: Its Rise and Fall (1992); and Twentieth-Century America: A Social and Political History (2005).