Dr Daniel Rowe

I am a historian twentieth century United States and wider world with a special focus on political, economic, urban, and labour history. I teach and supervise modern Global and US History at both undergraduate and postgraduate levels.

Research Interests

My research explores the history of modern American capitalism and the US State. I am particularly interested in industrial policy, the emergence of the North American 'Rustbelt', trade policy, and geo-economics. Alongside this, I also have academic interests in the Great Depression and New Deal, the US home front during the Cold War, and the American War in Vietnam.

My forthcoming monograph, State of Development: Preserving the American Economic Century in an Era of Anxious Capitalism (Columbia University Press), is a history of the overlapping industrial and financial crises of the late 1970s and early 1980s. The book investigates the responses of members of the business community, subnational community organisations, organised labor, and elected officials (national and local) to the economic instability of the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s. By examining policies enacted at a subnational and sectoral level and looking at the modern conservative movement from the outside-in, my work highlights the important—but mostly overlooked—role that the state played in creating and shaping markets, restricting trade, and preventing corporate and municipal failures in a period of ascendant economic and racial nationalism.

My next book project will explore the social history of three Rust Belt cities in a slightly later time period. This project, tentatively titled Educated Gambling: Casinos, Universities, and the Post-industrial Transformation of American Manufacturing Cities, will investigation of the consequences of casino and university expansion on cities and their residents.

You can follow me on BlueSky @danrowe.bsky.social