Christopher Phelps

Contact

• workRoom B83 Trent
  University Park
  Nottingham
  NG7 2RD
  UK
• work0115 95 14211
• fax0115 95 15812
• christopher.phelps@nottingham.ac.uk
• https://scholar.google.co.uk/citations?user=_6TXa0YAAAAJ&hl=en

Biography

Christopher Phelps is a historian of modern American political and intellectual life. Born near Washington, D.C., he has taught at universities in five countries: Britain, the United States, Poland, Hungary, and Canada. He is author of the intellectual biography Young Sidney Hook (Cornell, 1997; 2d ed., Michigan, 2005) and the book Radicals in America (Cambridge, 2015), a comprehensive history of the American left since the Second World War co-authored with Howard Brick.

His articles have appeared in the Journal of American History, Modern American History, Journal of American Studies, Journal of the History of Sexuality, and other scholarly journals, as well as the Financial Times, Telegraph, Times Higher Education, Chronicle of Higher Education, The Nation, Jacobin, Dissent, CNN.com, and Salon. While his interests are broad and eclectic, at present his research agenda is primarily focused on sexuality in the first half of the twentieth century.

Phelps has been awarded the Historians of the Twentieth-Century United States (HOTCUS) article prize, the Labor and Working-Class History Association (LAWCHA) prize for best article published in the journal Labor, and the Michael Fellman Award for historical writing, among other awards. He has received two Fulbright fellowships and research grants from the New York Public Library, the Huntington Library, and the Eisenberg Institute for Historical Studies at the University of Michigan. He serves on the editorial board of Radical Americas (UCL Press), is a contributing editor of Labor: Studies in Working-Class History (Duke University Press), and is a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy.

Expertise Summary

Available for comment on most U.S.-related news events and items, particularly regarding these topics:

• American politics and elections
• Radicalism, protest, social movements
• Race and racism
• History of American capitalism
• Labor, class, and strikes
• History of sexuality
• American intellectual and cultural history

Media appearances include the following. Television: CNBC Europe, CNN International, BBC News, BBC World News, Sky News, Deutsche Welle, France 24, Al Jazeera. Radio: ABC (Australia), BBC Radio 4 ("The World at One," "In Our Time"), BBC World Service ("Newshour"), ​BBC Radio 2 ("The Chris Evans Show"), BBC 5 Live ("Afternoon Edition"), BBC Radio Scotland ("Good Morning Scotland"), Bloomberg Radio ("First Word Europe"), LBC ("The Nick Ferrari Show," "The Andrew Castle Show"). Newsprint and internet media: quoted in The New York Times, The Atlantic, The Washington Times, Newsweek, The Independent, Deutsche Welle, The Chronicle of Higher Education, and other news providers.

Teaching Summary

Autumn 2022

- American Radicalism (Level 2, AMCS2033)

Spring 2023

- History of American Capitalism (Level 2, AMCS2049)

- Sexuality in American History (Level 3, AMCS3051)

Conceivably to be taught again in a future year:

- American Labor History (Level 3)

Selected Publications

• PHELPS, C., 2022. Class: A Useful Category of Analysis in the History of Sexual Harassment. Labor: Studies in Working-Class History. 19(1), 140-64.
• PHELPS, C. and VANDOME, R., eds., 2021. Marxism and America: New Appraisals. Manchester University Press.
• PHELPS, C., 2021. Why Did Teachers Organize? Feminism and Socialism in the Making of New York City Teacher Unionism. Modern American History. 4, 1-28.
• PHELPS, C., 2020. The Novel of American Authoritarianism. Science & Society. 84(2), 232-260.

• View all publications

• PHELPS, C., 2024. Capitalism, Work, and Sexuality from the Lavender Scare to Now Labor: Studies in Working-Class History. 21(3), 84-90.
• PHELPS, C., 2022. Class: A Useful Category of Analysis in the History of Sexual Harassment. Labor: Studies in Working-Class History. 19(1), 140-64.
• PHELPS, C., 2022. Class and Consent: Guest Editor's Introduction. Labor: Studies in Working-Class History. 19(1), 1-5.
• PHELPS, C., 2022. Preface to Margaret Sanger, "The Unrecorded Battle" (1912). Labor: Studies in Working-Class History. 19(1), 165-74.
• PHELPS, C., 2021. Why Did Teachers Organize? Feminism and Socialism in the Making of New York City Teacher Unionism. Modern American History. 4, 1-28.
• PHELPS, C. and VANDOME, R., eds., 2021. Marxism and America: New Appraisals. Manchester University Press.
• PHELPS, C., 2020. The Novel of American Authoritarianism. Science & Society. 84(2), 232-260.
• PHELPS, C., 2019. The Communist Party. In: TAKAYOSHI, I., ed., American Literature in Transition: The 1930s. Cambridge University Press.
• PHELPS, C., 2018. Heywood Broun, Benjamin Stolberg, and the Politics of American Labor Journalism in the 1920s and 1930s. Labor: Studies in Working-Class History. 15(1), 25-51.
• FRASER, M. and PHELPS, C., 2018. The Labor Beat: An Introduction. Labor: Studies in Working-Class History. 15(1), 1-3
• PHELPS, C., 2018. Hill, Herbert Milton. In: WARE, S., ed., American National Biography. Oxford University Press.
• PHELPS, C., 2017. The Sexuality of Malcolm X. Journal of American Studies. 51(3), 659-690.
• PHELPS, C. and COWIE, J., 2017. Taking Exception. Labor: Studies in the Working-Class History of the Americas. 14(2), 95-99
• PHELPS, C., 2015. Lefts Old and New: Sixties Radicalism, Now and Then. In: BRICK, H. and PARKER, G., eds., A New Insurgency: The Port Huron Statement and Its Times. University of Michigan Press. 143-152.
• BRICK, H. and PHELPS, C., 2015. Radicals in America: The U.S. Left since the Second World War Cambridge University Press.
• PHELPS, C., 2013. The Closet in the Party: The Young Socialist Alliance, the Socialist Workers Party, and Homosexuality, 1962-1970. Labor: Studies in Working-Class History of the Americas. 10(4), 11-38
• PHELPS, C., 2013. Just How New Was the New Left? Dissent. 60(4), 85-91
• PHELPS, C., 2012. Port Huron at Fifty: The New Left and Labor: An Interview with Kim Moody. Labor: Studies in Working-Class History of the Americas. 9(2), 25-46
• PHELPS, C., 2012. Herbert Hill and the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Labor History. 53(4), 561-570
• PHELPS, C., 2011. The Strike Imagined: The Atlantic and Interpretive Journeys of Robert Koehler's Painting The Strike. Journal of American History. 98(3), 670-697
• PHELPS, C., 2011. American Past, America Present. Journal of American Studies. 45(3), 431-436.
• PHELPS, C., 2010. Radicalism. In: KAZIN, M., ed., The Princeton Encyclopedia of American Political History. Princeton University Press. 652-657.
• PHELPS, C., 2009. Socialist Theories of the Strike. In: BRENNER, A., DAY, B. and NESS, I., eds., The Encyclopedia of Strikes in American History. M. E. Sharpe. 28-43.
• PHELPS, C., 2008. Solidarnosc in Lódz: An Interview with Zbigniew Marcin Kowalewski. International Labor and Working-Class History. 73, 106-136.
• PHELPS, C., 2008. Two Letters from 1936 on Science & Society, the Marxist Quarterly, and the New Republic. American Communist History. 7(1), 131-137.
• PHELPS, C., 2008. C. L. R. James. In: GATES, H.L. and HIGGINBOTHAM, E., eds., African American National Biography. Oxford University Press.
• PHELPS, C., 2008. Julius Lester. In: GATES, H.L. and HIGGINBOTHAM, E., eds., African American National Biography. Oxford University Press.
• PHELPS, C., 2008. Cecil B. Moore. In: GATES, H.L. and HIGGINBOTHAM, E., eds., African American National Biography. Oxford University Press.
• PHELPS, C., 2008. James Boggs. In: GATES, H.L. and HIGGINBOTHAM, E., eds., African American National Biography. Oxford University Press.
• PHELPS, C., 2008. Mumia Abu-Jamal. In: GATES, H.L. and HIGGINBOTHAM, E., eds., African American National Biography. Oxford University Press.
• PHELPS, C., 2008. Ernest Rice McKinney. In: GATES, H.L. and HIGGINBOTHAM, E., eds., African American National Biography. Oxford University Press.
• PHELPS, C., 2008. On Socialism and Sex: An Introduction. New Politics. 12(1, whole no. 45), 55-64
• PHELPS, C., 2007. A Neglected Document on Socialism and Sex. The Journal of the History of Sexuality. 16, 1-13.
• PHELPS, C., 2007. The Radicalism of Randolph Bourne. Socialism and Democracy. 21(1), 123-131.
• PHELPS, C., 2006. C.L.R. James and the Theory of State Capitalism. In: LICHTENSTEIN, N., ed., American Capitalism: Social Thought and Political Economy in the Twentieth Century. University of Pennsylvania Press. 157-174.
• PHELPS, C., 2005. Young Sidney Hook: Marxist and Pragmatist. 2d. ed. University of Michigan Press.
• PHELPS, C., ed., 2005. The Jungle, by Upton Sinclair. Bedford / St. Martin's.
• PHELPS, C., 2005. Cannery Workers. In: OBOLER, S. and GONZALEZ, D., eds., The Oxford Encyclopedia of Latino and Latina Politics, Law, and Social Movements. Oxford University Press.
• PHELPS, C., 2005. Meatpacking Industry. In: OBOLER, S. and GONZALEZ, D., eds., The Oxford Encyclopedia of Latino and Latina Politics, Law, and Social Movements. Oxford University Press.
• PHELPS, C., 2004. Flexibility and Revolution. In: COTTER, M., ed., Sidney Hook Reconsidered. Prometheus.
• PHELPS, C., 2004. Upton Sinclair. In: HUSSAIN, S., ed., The Encyclopedia of Capitalism. Facts on File.
• PHELPS, C., ed., 2003. Race and Revolution, by Max Shachtman. Verso.
• PHELPS, C., 2003. Why Wouldn’t Sidney Hook Permit the Republication of His Best Book? Historical Materialism. 11(4), 305-315.
• PHELPS, C., 2002. Historical Introduction. In: Towards the Understanding of Karl Marx, by Sidney Hook. Prometheus.
• PHELPS, C., 2001. Pragmatism and its Critics. In: CAYTON, M. K. and WILLIAMS, P. W., eds., The Encyclopedia of American Cultural and Intellectual History. Scribner's.
• PHELPS, C., 2001. Socialism and Radical Thought. In: CAYTON, M. K. and WILLIAMS, P. W., eds., Encyclopedia of American Intellectual and Cultural History. Scribner's.
• PHELPS, C., 1999. Jerry Rubin. In: GARRITY, J. A. and CARNES, M. C., eds., American National Biography. Oxford University Press.
• PHELPS, C., 1997. Young Sidney Hook: Marxist and Pragmatist. Cornell University Press.
• PHELPS, C., 1996. The Poverty of Marxist Crisis Theory During the Great Depression. Canadian Review of American Studies. 26, 27-61.
• PHELPS, C., 1995. The Liberal Imagination in The Middle of the Journey. Left History. 3, 31-47.
• PHELPS, C., 1994. Foreword to the Morningside Edition. In: From Hegel to Marx, by Sidney Hook. Columbia University Press.
• BLAKE, C. and PHELPS, C., 1994. History as Social Criticism: Conversations with Christopher Lasch. Journal of American History. 80, 1310-32.
• Capitalism, Work, and Sexuality from the Lavender Scare to Now Labor: Studies in Working-Class History. 21(3), 84-90