Biography

Erik Linstrum is a historian of modern Britain in its imperial, European, and global contexts.  His research explores the politics of knowledge and the circulation of information with particular interests in science and technology, war and violence, and the long history of decolonization.  His first book, Ruling Minds: Psychology in the British Empire, won the George Louis Beer Prize of the American Historical Association for the best book of the year in European international history.  His most recent book, Age of Emergency: Living with Violence at the End of the British Empire, traces reports of atrocities in Malaya, Kenya, and Cyprus as they circulated through British society after 1945: from the anticolonial left to the imperialist and fascist right, from Fleet Street to the Church of England, from BBC teleplays to the West End theater scene.  

Linstrum has held fellowships with the American Council of Learned Societies, the American Academy in Berlin, the Kluge Center at the Library of Congress, the Society of Fellows at the University of Michigan, the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard, and the Institute of Historical Research in London.  He serves as co-editor of the journal Modern British History and associate editor of the Journal of British Studies and sits on the editorial board of the Journal of Modern History.