Christopher Phelps

Contact

• workRoom B83 Trent
• work0115 9514211
• christopher.phelps@nottingham.ac.uk

Biography

Christopher Phelps is a historian of modern American political and intellectual life. Born near Washington, D.C., he has taught at universities in five countries (Britain, the United States, Poland, Hungary, and Canada). He is author of Young Sidney Hook, a biography of the early years of a philosopher and New York intellectual who journeyed from left to right, and editor of the Bedford/St. Martin's edition of Upton Sinclair's novel The Jungle.

Phelps's scholarship has been published in The Journal of American History, The Journal of American Studies, The Journal of the History of Sexuality, and other academic journals, as well as popular outlets including The Nation, CNN.com, The Guardian, Times Higher Education, The Chronicle of Higher Education, and InsideHigherEd.com. He has been cited by The New York Times, the BBC, and other news media.

Expertise Summary

• American intellectual and cultural history
• American pragmatism and philosophy
• American political history and elections
• History of capitalism
• Labor and class
• Strikes
• Race and racism
• Radicalism, socialism, and social movements
• History of sexuality

Teaching Summary

American Thought and Culture (Level 2) American Radicalism (Level 2) American Labor History (Level 3 & Post-Graduate) Researching Contemporary America: American Capitalism… read more

Selected Publications

• PHELPS, C., 2012. Port Huron at Fifty: The New Left and Labor: An Interview with Kim Moody. Labor: Studies in Working-Class History of the Americas. 9(2), 25-46.
• PHELPS, C., 2011. The Strike Imagined: The Atlantic and Interpretive Journeys of Robert Koehler's Painting The Strike Journal of American History. 98(3), 670-697.
• PHELPS, C., 2008. Solidarnosc in Lódz: An Interview with Zbigniew Marcin Kowalewski International Labor and Working-Class History. 73, 106-136.

• View all publications

• American Thought and Culture (Level 2)
• American Radicalism (Level 2)
• American Labor History (Level 3 & Post-Graduate)
• Researching Contemporary America: American Capitalism (Post-Graduate)

• PHELPS, C., 2012. Port Huron at Fifty: The New Left and Labor: An Interview with Kim Moody. Labor: Studies in Working-Class History of the Americas. 9(2), 25-46.
• PHELPS, C., 2011. The Strike Imagined: The Atlantic and Interpretive Journeys of Robert Koehler's Painting The Strike Journal of American History. 98(3), 670-697.
• PHELPS, C., 2011. American Past, America Present. Journal of American Studies. 45(3), 431-436.
• PHELPS, C., 2010. Radicalism. In: KAZIN, M., ed., The Princeton Encyclopedia of American Political History. Princeton University Press. 652-657.
• PHELPS, C., 2009. Socialist Theories of the Strike. In: BRENNER, A., DAY, B. and NESS, I., eds., The Encyclopedia of Strikes in American History. M. E. Sharpe. 28-43.
• PHELPS, C., 2008. Solidarnosc in Lódz: An Interview with Zbigniew Marcin Kowalewski International Labor and Working-Class History. 73, 106-136.
• PHELPS, C., 2008. Two Letters from 1936 on Science & Society, the Marxist Quarterly, and the New Republic. American Communist History. 7(1), 131-137.
• PHELPS, C., 2008. C. L. R. James. In: GATES, H.L. and HIGGINBOTHAM, E., eds., African American National Biography. Oxford University Press.
• PHELPS, C., 2008. Julius Lester. In: GATES, H.L. and HIGGINBOTHAM, E., eds., African American National Biography. Oxford University Press.
• PHELPS, C., 2008. Cecil B. Moore. In: GATES, H.L. and HIGGINBOTHAM, E., eds., African American National Biography. Oxford University Press.
• PHELPS, C., 2008. James Boggs. In: GATES, H.L. and HIGGINBOTHAM, E., eds., African American National Biography. Oxford University Press.
• PHELPS, C., 2008. Mumia Abu-Jamal. In: GATES, H.L. and HIGGINBOTHAM, E., eds., African American National Biography. Oxford University Press.
• PHELPS, C., 2008. Ernest Rice McKinney. In: GATES, H.L. and HIGGINBOTHAM, E., eds., African American National Biography. Oxford University Press.
• PHELPS, C., 2008. A Neglected Document on Socialism and Sex. New Politics. 55-64.
• PHELPS, C., 2007. A Neglected Document on Socialism and Sex. The Journal of the History of Sexuality. 16, 1-13.
• PHELPS, C., 2007. The Radicalism of Randolph Bourne. Socialism and Democracy. 21(1), 123-131.
• PHELPS, C., 2006. C.L.R. James and the Theory of State Capitalism. In: LICHTENSTEIN, N., ed., American Capitalism: Social Thought and Political Economy in the Twentieth Century. University of Pennsylvania Press. 157-174.
• PHELPS, C., 2005. Young Sidney Hook: Marxist and Pragmatist. 2d. ed. University of Michigan Press.
• PHELPS, C., ed., 2005. The Jungle, by Upton Sinclair. Bedford / St. Martin's.
• PHELPS, C., 2005. Cannery Workers. In: OBOLER, S. and GONZALEZ, D., eds., The Oxford Encyclopedia of Latino and Latina Politics, Law, and Social Movements. Oxford University Press.
• PHELPS, C., 2005. Meatpacking Industry. In: OBOLER, S. and GONZALEZ, D., eds., The Oxford Encyclopedia of Latino and Latina Politics, Law, and Social Movements. Oxford University Press.
• PHELPS, C., 2004. Flexibility and Revolution. In: COTTER, M., ed., Sidney Hook Reconsidered. Prometheus.
• PHELPS, C., 2004. Upton Sinclair. In: HUSSAIN, S., ed., The Encyclopedia of Capitalism. Facts on File.
• PHELPS, C., ed., 2003. Race and Revolution, by Max Shachtman. Verso.
• PHELPS, C., 2003. Why Wouldn’t Sidney Hook Permit the Republication of His Best Book? Historical Materialism. 11(4), 305-315.
• PHELPS, C., 2002. Historical Introduction. In: Towards the Understanding of Karl Marx, by Sidney Hook. Prometheus.
• PHELPS, C., 2001. Pragmatism and its Critics. In: CAYTON, M. K. and WILLIAMS, P. W., eds., The Encyclopedia of American Cultural and Intellectual History. Scribner's.
• PHELPS, C., 2001. Socialism and Radical Thought. In: CAYTON, M. K. and WILLIAMS, P. W., eds., Encyclopedia of American Intellectual and Cultural History. Scribner's.
• PHELPS, C., 1999. Jerry Rubin. In: GARRITY, J. A. and CARNES, M. C., eds., American National Biography. Oxford University Press.
• PHELPS, C., 1997. Young Sidney Hook: Marxist and Pragmatist. Cornell University Press.
• PHELPS, C., 1996. The Poverty of Marxist Crisis Theory During the Great Depression. Canadian Review of American Studies. 26, 27-61.
• PHELPS, C., 1995. The Liberal Imagination in The Middle of the Journey. Left History. 3, 31-47.
• PHELPS, C., 1994. Forward to the Morningside Edition. In: From Hegel to Marx, by Sidney Hook. Columbia University Press.
• BLAKE, C. and PHELPS, C., 1994. History as Social Criticism: Conversations with Christopher Lasch. Journal of American History. 80, 1310-32.