University of Hertfordshire

Faculty Member, History

Research Professor in Modern European History

About

I am probably best described as a historian of consumption, with particular interests in commodities, food, marketing, retailing, sport and the processes of transnational transfer.  I currently specialize in the history of coffee.  The Cappuccino Conquests – a research project funded by the ESRC/AHRC Cultures of Consumption programme between 2004 and 2007 -  analysed the global spread of ‘Italian style’ coffee, analysing both industry strategies and consumer practices.  I am currently working on a global history of coffee, synthesizing the history of a commodity from its entry into the medieval Red Sea trading economy to today’s globally integrated industry which sees coffee grown in four continents and consumed in all seven.  I have built close links to the coffee trade, and regularly participate in industry events, as well as providing comments and insights into the coffee world in the public media.  You can download some of the outputs from the Cappuccino Conquests project from the 'Papers' page of  this site, or watch me giving illustrated talks about my research on iTunesU by going to the 'Talks' page.

I began my academic career with a monograph on The Political Economy of Shopkeeping in Milan 1886-1922 (1993), and have continued to publish widely on issues in modern Italian history, The New History of the Italian South (1997), A Short History of Italy (with Harry Hearder 2001),and Made in Italy. Consumi e identitá collettive nel second dopoguerra (theme issue, Memoria e Ricerca 2006).  I have broad interests in the social and political history of Modern Europe, which I was able to pursue as Editor of the journal Contemporary European History from 1998 to 2007.  I am particularly interested in comparative and transnational approaches as evidenced in my publications The Petite Bourgeoisie in Europe 1914-45 (theme issue, Contemporary European History, 1996) and American Exceptionalism? US Working Class Formation in International Comparison (1997).

One of the reasons I was attracted to the University of Hertfordshire was its emphasis on the practice of ‘public history’ as a way of embracing the university’s ‘entrepreneurial’ mission.  As well as my collaborations with the coffee industry, I have established connections to a number of local heritage institutions, which have furthered my own interest in Hertfordshire’s history.  I directed an internal project to develop a business plan to establish a Hertfordshire Industrial Education Centre, which would seek to facilitate links between schools and local enterprises by providing an academic context for site visits that would also increase young people’s awareness of careers in industry and commerce.  We hope to move to a pilot project stage soon.   

I currently teach an undergraduate module on Italian Fascism, and an MA module entitled ‘From Local to Global: Consumption and Society since 1870’.  I supervise undergraduate, MA and Ph.D dissertations in the fields of business, consumption, modern European, and local history.  I would be happy to hear from anyone interested in working with me in these areas.

I act as Research Leader for the History Group, and was the principal author and coordinator for the unit’s very successful submission to RAE 2008 (25% 4*, 45% 3*, 30% 2*).  I sit on the University Research Committee and the SSAHRI Research Committee (Social Sciences, Arts and Humanities Research Institute), and am a member of the UH REF Managment Group.  I am a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society and the Higher Education Academy, and a member of the AHRC Peer Review College.  I have been appointed to the History sub-panel of REF 2014.