Dr Andrew Phemister FRHistS

Personal Statement

I am a historian of Ireland, Britain and the United States in the (very) long nineteenth century, with a particular focus on their intellectual, social, and environmental histories.

My research examines agrarian and labour politics, popular activism, and political thought. I am particularly interested in how social movements and environmental conditions have shaped the trajectories of liberalism, radicalism and socialism across the North Atlantic world.

I hold degrees from the Universities of Edinburgh and Cambridge, and I have previously worked as a Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Galway, the University of Oxford, Newcastle University, and Edinburgh's Institute for Advanced Studies in the Humanities.

My first book, Land and Liberalism: Henry George and the Irish Land War (Cambridge, 2023), looked at how agrarian radicalism shaped late Victorian liberal politics.

I am currently working on two projects. The first is a transnational history of boycotting and the relationship of the practice with popular activism and political thought, building toward a book (currently and provisionally) titled: Democracy and the Boycott: Popular Action and Liberal Reaction, 1880-1927.

Secondly, alongside colleagues at Newcastle University, and as part of the NERC/ESRC/AHRC funded 'Future of UK Treescapes' project, I am working on a history of the management and social impact of trees and woodlands in Britain and Ireland over the last 300 years.