Ph.D., Harvard University, 1999;
A.M., Harvard University, 1993;
Ed.M., Harvard Graduate School of Education, 1989;
B.F.A., Massachusetts College of Art, 1984.
As a historian of 19th century American political culture and constitutionalism, my primary focus has been on the notion of property rights and their link to citizenship. My first book argues that the wartime confiscation of rebel property--including human property--necessitated profound changes in the American conception of private property rights, constitutionally protected civil liberties, and an individual's right to decide for her/himself what constituted legitimate property. My research for this book and for subsequent articles on 19th century constitutional culture led me to a deeper interest in American ideas about democracy, self-government, and constitutionalism. This research specifically raised questions about the conflict between the rights of individual citizens and the rights of political communities, as well as the limitations of democratic self-government in the presence of ethnic, racial, cultural, and religious clashes. My second book concerns the political, social, and military history of Missouri during the era of the Civil War.
My current research focuses on self-government and democracy in the states carved from the Old Northwest during the decades before the outbreak of the Civil War. I am writing a book on antebellum state and territorial constitutions, in which I argue that the constitutional debates in the Old Northwest Territory reveal a turbulent, creative, and profoundly democratic experimentation with self-government. The debates over the new constitutions were deeply concerned with land rights and opportunities; perhaps for this reason, these discussions often betray an imaginative reinterpretation of democracy. Convention delegates and their constituents used political compromises, alliances, and rhetoric in a creative blend of legislative, constitutional, and private (including, sometimes corrupt) negotiation. I argue that they had to build new alliances, not only with the political and economic leaders of the older eastern states, but also with European investors and potential settlers. These struggles reveal how antebellum Midwesterners participated in democracy--how they combined their ideals and principles, their personal and local interests, and their patriotism--on the ground.
Honors and Fellowships
Recent Courses Taught
Essays in Edited Volumes