I teach courses on European history since 1750 and British history since 10,000 BCE. I have written about urban history, intellectual history, and the history of science.
I’m especially interested in the history of political culture. My work asks how political worldviews - meritocracy in my first book, social democracy in my second - operate and change, even without the knowledge or approval of the people who most hold them.
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.
