Institut für Europäische Geschichte (IEG) Mainz

Department Member, Universalgeschichte

Other Affiliations: The Open University, History

Wissenschaftlicher Mitarbeiter

About

I'm primarily, I'd say, a 'cultural historian', since what connects the various specific projects I'm working on is an interest in what people thought: about themselves, about what they were doing, and about the world around them. On the other hand, I feel uncomfortable with the tendency, too often, to treat 'culture' as a collection of free-floating, endlessly changeable and essentially textual social constructions.

Hence, my interest in connecting 'culture' to both social context and human psychology. In the former case, my influences include the social historians of 'experience' such as E.P. Thompson (and the work he inspired) and historical sociologists such as Norbert Elias (ditto). In the latter, I'm interested in both understanding how the mind works (so, neuroscience and cognitive psychology above all) as well as why it does so (which brings us to evolutionary psychology).

More concretely, I currently have three main areas of research.

1. The cultural history of inter-war Britain.

2. Religious and secular responses in Britain to plans for, and later processes of, European unification, along with related issues such as nationalism, pacifism and the international order.

3. The history of crime, violence and policing.

How I got here?

Well, for starters...

1992 BA (History): Northern Illinois University

1994 MA (History): University of Maryland, College Park

2001 PhD (History): University of Maryland, College Park

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