My main interests pertain to U.S. foreign relations history and the history of U.S. empire in the long nineteenth century, stretching through World War I. I have written on masculinity and policy making around 1898, trade and globavore consumption, and U.S. empire more generally. My most recent book, The Heartland: An American History, takes the American heartland as a starting point for tracking histories of border brokering, human mobility, geographic consciousness, imperial piggybacking, and alliance politics. My current research is on imperialist infrastructure building at the dawn of the big carbon era. Also of interest: histories of militarism and war, colonialism and globalization, agriculture and the environment, gender and sexuality, and entanglements across empires.

Ph.D. Yale University, 1995
B.A. Yale University, 1987

I teach classes on historical methods and writing, the United States in world context, U.S. foreign relations, the United States in an age of empire, local history in global context, food history, and U.S. nation building through 1877.

309 Gregory Hall, MC-466, 810 S. Wright St.

(217) 300-4094