Positions

Research Areas research areas

Overview

  • Eliga Gould’s scholarship focuses on the American Revolution, with an emphasis on the entangled history that Americans shared with the rest of the Americas, as well as with Africa, Europe, and the wider world. His current book project, CRUCIBLE OF PEACE (under contract with Oxford), examines the least studied of the United States’ founding documents: the Treaty of 1783 that ended the American Revolutionary War. In AMONG THE POWERS OF THE EARTH: THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION AND THE MAKING OF A NEW WORLD EMPIRE (Harvard, 2012), he explored the manifold ways in which the early American republic’s quest to be accepted as a “treaty worthy” nation by Europe’s colonial powers shaped American thinking about an array of issues, including federalism, Native American treaty rights, and the abolition of slavery. The book has been widely praised, including on the WALL STREET JOURNAL's op-ed page and by Noam Chomsky, who highlighted the concept of treaty worthiness in an editorial on contemporary U.S. foreign policy. Named a Library Journal Best Book of the Year, Among the Powers received the SHEAR Book Prize from the Society for Historians of the Early American Republic and was a finalist for the George Washington Book Prize. A Japanese translation was published in 2016.

    Professor Gould has taught at the University of New Hampshire since 1992. In addition to being recognized at UNH for excellence in teaching and research, he has held long-term fellowships from the John Simon Guggenheim Foundation, the Fulbright-Hays Program, the National Endowment for the Humanities (twice), and the Charles Warren Center at Harvard. In 2025-26, he will be the Harmsworth Professor of American History at Oxford. Gould’s other publications include THE PERSISTENCE OF EMPIRE: BRITISH POLITICAL CULTURE IN THE AGE OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION (University of North Carolina, 2000), winner of the Omohundro Institute of Early American History and Culture’s Jamestown Prize, EMPIRE AND NATION: THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION AND THE ATLANTIC WORLD, co-edited with Peter S. Onuf (Johns Hopkins, 2005), the first volume of THE CAMBRIDGE HISTORY OF AMERICA AND THE WORLD, co-edited with Carla Pestana and Paul Mapp (Cambridge, 2021), and numerous articles, book chapters, and review essays. He did his undergraduate education at Princeton University, followed by graduate work at the University of Edinburgh and Johns Hopkins University, where he earned his PhD.
  • Selected Publications

    Academic Article

    Year Title
    2017 Independence and Interdependence: The American Revolution and the Problem of Postcolonial Nationhood, circa 1802William and Mary Quarterly: a magazine of early American history and culture.  74:729-752. 2017
    2016 The Royalist Revolution: Monarchy and the American FoundingReviews in American history.  44:235-240. 2016
    2016 Benjamin Franklin and the Ends of EmpireEarly American Literature.  51:501-505. 2016
    2015 Independence: The Tangled Roots of the American RevolutionJournal of American History.  102:540-541. 2015
    2015 The Ocean Is a Wilderness: Atlantic Piracy and the Limits of State Authority, 1688-1856Journal of British Studies.  54:726-727. 2015
    2014 The Elusive West and the Contest for Empire, 1713-1763Diplomatic History: the journal of the Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations.  38:1156-1158. 2014
    2014 Review Essay The Wars of 1812Journal of the Early Republic.  34:109-114. 2014
    2012 Unfinished Revolution: The Early American Republic in a British WorldJournal of American History.  99:581-581. 2012
    2011 Empire of Liberty: A History of the Early Republic, 1789-1815Journal of Southern History.  77:923-925. 2011
    2010 Atlantic History: A Critical AppraisalReviews in American history.  38:8-16. 2010
    2010 Soundings in Atlantic History: Latent Structures and Intellectual Currents, 1500-1830Reviews in American history.  38:8-16. 2010
    2010 The Web of Empire: English Cosmopolitans in an Age of Expansion, 1560-1660Reviews in American history.  38:8-16. 2010
    2009 The Idea of Greater Britain: Empire and the Future of World Order, 1860-1900The International History Review.  31:136-138. 2009
    2008 Sovereignty and possession in the English New World: The legal foundations of empire, 1576-1640American Historical Review.  113:570-571. 2008
    2008 Atlantic history and the literary turnWilliam and Mary Quarterly: a magazine of early American history and culture.  65:175-180. 2008
    2008 Atlantic history and the literary turn (Eric Slauter)Early American Literature.  43:197-203. 2008
    2007 Entangled Atlantic histories: A response from the Anglo-American peripheryAmerican Historical Review.  112:1415-1422. 2007
    2007 Hakluyts promise: An Elizabethan's obsession for an English AmericaJournal of American History.  94:910-911. 2007
    2007 Entangled histories, entangled worlds: The English-speaking Atlantic as a Spanish peripheryAmerican Historical Review.  112:764-786. 2007
    2007 The question of Home RuleWilliam and Mary Quarterly: a magazine of early American history and culture.  64:255-258. 2007
    2006 Doomsayers: Anglo-American prophecy in the age of revolution.Journal of British Studies.  45:173-174. 2006
    2005 A new imperial history: Culture, identity, and modernity in Britain and the empire, 1660-1840.American Historical Review.  110:1478-1479. 2005
    2005 Peace pact: The lost world of the American founding.The International History Review.  27:382-384. 2005
    2005 A leap in the dark: The struggle to create the American republic.Journal of Southern History.  71:140-142. 2005
    2003 Zones of law, zones of violence: The legal geography of the British Atlantic, circa 1772William and Mary Quarterly: a magazine of early American history and culture.  60:471-510. 2003
    2003 The Oxford history of the British Empire, vol 2, The eighteenth centuryThe English Historical Review.  118:448-450. 2003
    2001 Jefferson's empire: The language of American nationhoodJournal of Southern History.  67:833-835. 2001
    2001 The British Isles and the War of American IndependenceWilliam and Mary Quarterly: a magazine of early American history and culture.  58:1025-1028. 2001
    2000 An empire of manners: The refinement of British America in Atlantic perspectiveJournal of British Studies.  39:114-122. 2000
    2000 Lord John Scott Eldon, 1751-1838: The duty of loyaltyJournal of British Studies.  32:509-510. 2000
    2000 Science in the service of Empire: Joseph Banks, the British state and the uses of science in the age of revolution.Journal of Interdisciplinary History.  31:90-91. 2000
    1999 A virtual nation: Greater Britain and the imperial legacy of the American revolutionAmerican Historical Review.  104:476-489. 1999
    1998 Transatlantic radicals and the early American republic.Journal of American History.  85:218-219. 1998
    1997 Samuel Johnson and the politics of Hanoverian England.Journal of Modern History.  69:828-829. 1997
    1997 American independence and Britain's counter-revolutionPast and Present.  154:107-141. 1997
    1996 From Jacobite to Conservative: Reaction and orthodoxy in Britain, c.1760-1832 - Sack,JJJournal of Modern History.  68:984-985. 1996
    1996 To keep and bear arms. The origins of an Anglo-American right - Malcolm,JLThe English Historical Review.  111:1290-1291. 1996
    1996 Popular politics and British anti-slavery: The mobilisation of public opinion against the slave trade, 1787-1807 - Oldfield,JRJournal of British Studies.  28:705-707. 1996
    1993 BRITONS - FORGING THE NATION, 1707-1837 - COLLEY,LWilliam and Mary Quarterly: a magazine of early American history and culture.  50:822-825. 1993
    1991 TO STRENGTHEN THE KINGS HANDS - DYNASTIC LEGITIMACY, MILITIA REFORM AND IDEAS OF NATIONAL UNITY IN ENGLAND 1745-1760Historical Journal.  34:329-348. 1991

    Book

    Year Title
    2015 Empire and Nation The American Revolution in the Atlantic World 2015
    2012 Among the Powers of the Earth 2012
    2011 The Persistence of Empire British Political Culture in the Age of the American Revolution 2011

    Chapter

    Year Title
    2018 War by Other Means: Mercantilism and Free Trade in the Age of the American Revolution 2018
    2018 ENTANGLED EMPIRES THE ANGLO-IBERIAN ATLANTIC, 1500-1830 Afterword.  255-258. 2018
    2013 "A HEMISPHERE TO ITSELF": THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION AND THE ENTANGLED HISTORY OF THE WESTERN ATLANTICMedieval and Early Modern Iberian World. 75-95. 2013
    2013 THE LAWS OF WAR AND PEACE Legitimating Slavery in the Age of the American Revolution.  52-76. 2013

    Teaching Activities

  • Dir Read/Early American Hist Taught course
  • Dir Read/Early American Hist Taught course
  • Dir Read/Early American Hist Taught course
  • History of Early America Taught course
  • History of Early America Taught course
  • History of Early America Taught course
  • History of Early America Taught course
  • History of Early America Taught course
  • History of Early America Taught course
  • History of Early America Taught course
  • History of Early America Taught course
  • History of Early America Taught course
  • Readings Early American Hist Taught course
  • Colloquium Taught course 2024
  • Dir Read/Early American Hist Taught course 2024
  • Dir Read/Early American Hist Taught course 2024
  • History of Early America Taught course 2024
  • History of Early America Taught course 2024
  • History of Early America Taught course 2024
  • History of Early America Taught course 2024
  • History of Early America Taught course 2024
  • History of Early America Taught course 2024
  • History of Early America Taught course 2024
  • History of Early America Taught course 2024
  • History of Early America Taught course 2024
  • Dir Read/Early American Hist Taught course 2022
  • Doctoral Research Taught course 2022
  • Explor/World of the Revolution Taught course 2022
  • Readings Early American Hist Taught course 2022
  • Dir Read/Early American Hist Taught course 2021
  • History of Early America Taught course 2021
  • Intro to Historical Thinking Taught course 2021
  • American Revolution 1750-1800 Taught course 2021
  • Coll/2nd Amendment&Am. Taught course 2021
  • History of Early America Taught course 2020
  • Research Sem Early Amer Hist Taught course 2020
  • Dir Read/Early American Hist Taught course 2020
  • Dir Read/Early American Hist Taught course 2020
  • History of Early America Taught course 2020
  • Readings Early American Hist Taught course 2020
  • Dir Read/Early American Hist Taught course 2019
  • Dir Read/Early American Hist Taught course 2019
  • Dir Read/Early American Hist Taught course 2018
  • Dir Read/Early American Hist Taught course 2018
  • History of Early America Taught course 2018
  • American Revolution 1750-1800 Taught course 2017
  • Dir Read/Early American Hist Taught course 2017
  • History of Early America Taught course 2016
  • Dir Read/Early American Hist Taught course 2015
  • Readings Early American Hist Taught course 2015
  • American Revolution 1750-1800 Taught course 2015
  • Dir Read/Early American Hist Taught course 2015
  • Coll/World of Amer. Revolution Taught course 2014
  • History of Early America Taught course 2014
  • Education And Training

  • A.B., Princeton University
  • M.A. History Teacher Education, Johns Hopkins University
  • M.Sc., University of Edinburgh
  • Ph.D. History, Johns Hopkins University
  • Full Name

  • Eliga Gould