I am a historian of American politics, focusing on the evolving connections between capitalism, racism, and government.

My first book, When Good Government Meant Big Government: The Quest to Expand Federal Power, 1913–1933, was published in February 2022 by Columbia University Press.

You can read more about the book in my interview with The Docket.

I am currently working on two book projects:

• Swamp Thing: The Rise and Fall of Good Government in America, is a follow-up to my first book, focusing on the political history of national public administration in the United States and the efforts of reformers to create and maintain a politically neutral civil service.

• Useful to Their Nation: Choctaw Students and Families in the Removal Era, 1819–1834, is a history of how Choctaws attempted to resist pressure from the U.S. government to cede their traditional homelands in Mississippi and Alabama.

I received my PhD in history from Case Western Reserve University in 2016, and I taught at Loyola University Maryland in Baltimore from 2016 to 2019. Before beginning grad school in history in 2009, I was a journalist. See my CV here.

I grew up in Washington state. As an adult, I have lived in Washington, South Dakota, Ohio, Maryland, New Jersey, and (now) Washington, D.C. I am enrolled as a Tribal Member of the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma.