Research and Scholarly Interests

I am an intellectual historian with a particular interest in how both intellectuals and ordinary Americans have balanced belief in capitalism with other competing ways of understanding the world, particularly religious world views.  In an unexpected twist, my interest in capitalism and Christianity led me to study the work and career of America’s favorite atheist, the libertarian novelist and philosopher Ayn Rand. Goddess of the Market: Ayn Rand and the American Right (Oxford University Press, October 2009) is my first book.

I've also published a variety of articles on conservative and libertarian political thought, which you can find linked below.

For more on my academic work, please visit my University of Virginia faculty webpage.

for a copy of my CV, click here

Goddess of the Market: Ayn Rand and the American Right

Oxford University Press, 2009

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"Liberalism and the Conservative Imagination," in Liberalism for a New Century

eds. Neil Jumonville and Kevin Mattson (University of California Press, 2007)

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Godless Capitalism: Ayn Rand and the Conservative Movement

Printed in Modern Intellectual History, 1, 3 (November 2004): 1-27, and in American Capitalism: Social Thought and Political Economy in Twentieth Century America, ed. Nelson Lichtenstein (2006).

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O Libertarian, Where Is Thy Sting?

"O Libertarian, Where Is Thy Sting?", Journal of Policy History, 19.4 (2007). p. 452-471.

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In Retrospect: George Nash's The Conservative Intellectual Movement in America Since 1945

"In Retrospect: George Nash's The Conservative Intellectual Movement in America Since 1945," Reviews in American History, 32 (September 2004): 447-462.

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