I studied British history, European history, and the history of science at Northwestern. I teach courses on European history since 1750 and British history since 10,000 BCE.
I’m especially interested in the history of political culture, and have written about meritocracy and technocracy, radicalism and social democracy, neo-conservatism and neo-liberalism.
Lately I’ve been reading a lot of nineteenth-century British historical writing. How did this national frame of reference deal with processes and connections that far exceed the nation?
I’m currently the chair of NYU’s History Department. With Peter Mandler, Deborah Cohen, and Margot Finn, I co-edit Cambridge University Press’s Modern British Histories book series.
