State of the field

A comment on the place of national (British) history in the historical discipline for Modern British History.

Teaching

Last spring I taught my survey of Britain & the British Empire. I found this introduction to modern Britain dwelling on Europe. We began with Parliament welcoming a Dutch monarch in 1689, and ended with Britain leaving the European Union in 2020. In between, Britain allied with Germany, Russia, and France, and fought wars against Germany, Russia, and France. This is, ultimately, a class about a European country - one that comes to know itself, in part, through an often tricky relationship with Europe.

Last fall I taught a new graduate seminar with Karl Appuhn. Now and Then compared early modern and modern treatments of common themes. Are animals historical? Is sight? Is there a relationship between gossip in sixteenth-century Switzerland and twentieth-century England? Most importantly, what can be gained by asking such questions across conventional periodizations?

Public writing

“The Queen is dead. England is not.” On the state-of-the-nation upon the Queen’s death for the Washington Post. This piece got picked up in a number of places, from the Bangladesh Post to Stars and Stripes.

“Yet despite the tried-and-true Tory tactic of sacrificing wounded leaders to reset their public standing, this time could be different.” On Boris Johnson’s resignation for the Washington Post.

Unpublished paper

“Welfare State Modernism and the Politics of Aesthetic Change,” a standalone version of Chapter 3 of Thatcher’s Progress.