Dr Daniel Peart

My research focuses on the relationship between Americans and their government in the early United States. My first book, Era of Experimentation: American Political Practices in the Early Republic, explores the diversity of American democracy during this formative period for the young nation. My second book, Lobbyists and the Making of US Tariff Policy, 1816-1861, investigates the origins of lobbying and its role in the making of federal trade policy. This book was awarded ‘Honourable Mention’ in the British Association for American Studies 2019 Book Prize competition. I'm currently working on a new project on the Speakers of the US House of Representatives, which examines the role of this understudied office in the legislative history of the republic up to the American Civil War.

I have received a Large Grant Seed-corn Fund award from the QMUL Institute of Humanities and Social Sciences for a pilot study for a digital humanities project entitled ‘A State of Legislatures: American Legislative Output, 1789-1861’ (co-developed with Dr. Max Edling, KCL), which proposes to categorise by subject matter all laws passed by Congress and selected state legislatures from the ratification of the Constitution to the Civil War. I have also received research grants from the Virginia Historical Society (Andrew W. Mellon Fellowship), Institute of Historical Research (Scouloudi Historical Award), Institute for Political History (Hugh Davis Graham Travel Award) for previous book projects, and a five-month Program in Early American Economy and Society Fellowship from the Library Company of Philadelphia.