Previously, Zuczek was at The University of Tennessee, where he was both an assistant professor and an assistant editor of The Papers of Andrew Johnson. In 1996, he published State of Rebellion: South Carolina during Reconstruction (University of South Carolina Press, 1996). He is the co-author (with Glenna Schroeder-Lein) of the Andrew Johnson Companion (ABC-Clio, 2000), and has published on the Civil War and Reconstruction in Civil War History, The South Carolina Historical Magazine, The Handbook on the Vice Presidents, The South Carolina Encyclopedia, and Greenwood's The American Civil War: A Handbook of Literature and Research.