Profile:

PhD, Harvard, 1994. American politics and history. Current research on Congress, state legislatures, the culture war, and party polarization. Books include The Making of New Deal Democrats (University of Chicago Press, 1989), Urban Exodus: Why the Jews Left Boston and the Catholics Stayed (Harvard University Press, 1999), and, with Steven S. Smith, Steering the Senate: Party Competition and the Emergence of Leadership, 1789-2021 (forthcoming). Articles include "Life, Literacy, and the Pursuit of Prosperity: Party Competition and Policy Outcomes in 50 States" (with Thad Kousser), American Political Science Review (2021); "The Dynamics of Party Government in Congress" (with Steven S. Smith) in Congress Reconsidered, 12th ed. (CQ Press, 2021); "No Strength in Numbers: The Failure of Big-City Bills in American State Legislatures, 1880-2000" (with Thad Kousser), American Political Science Review (2013); "Broad Bills or Particularistic Policy? Historical Patterns in American State Legislatures" (with Thad Kousser), American Political Science Review (2010); and "Pockets of Expertise: Institutional Capacity in Twentieth-Century State Legislatures" (with Nancy Burns, Laura Evans, and Corrine McConnaughy), Studies in American Political Development (2008). Fellow at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars. Recipient of a Goergen Award for Distinguished Achievement and Artistry in Undergraduate Teaching. Chair of the Department of Political Science, 1999-2011, 2017-18. Teaches courses in the fields of American politics and American history.