About me
I am a historian of the modern world. My scholarship examines revolutionary movements, radicalism, and the changes that decolonisation has wrought on the international system. While I am a specialist in African and Middle Eastern history, in practice my work defies the standard regional categories. My first book, Mecca of Revolution (Oxford University Press), was a global history of the Algerian Revolution based on previously-unseen Algerian sources and archives. It garned widespread acclaim and numerous academic distinctions, including the American Historical Association's Bentley Prize in world-scale history. I am currently writing two books that reassess the twentieth century: one that charts the rise and fall of revolutionary anticolonialism, and a second that examines the destabilising periphery of post-imperial Europe. I also frequently comment on current affairs for organisations such as BBC World, France Inter, and the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation.
I studied at Yale University and the London School of Economics. I presently hold the position of Associate Professor of History at the University of British Columbia (UBC).