Richard Bensel (Ph.D. Cornell University) is a Professor in the Government Department. His primary fields are American politics and political economy.

His research and teaching interests include American political development, parties and elections, the United States Congress, comparative state formation, and institutional change.

He is the author of, most recently, The American Ballot Box in the Mid-Nineteenth Century (Cambridge University Press, 2004) and The Political Economy of American Industrialization, 1877-1900 (Cambridge University Press, 2000). The last won the 2002 David Greenstone Prize from the Politics and History Section of the American Political Science Association and was selected by Choice as one of the "Outstanding Academic Titles of 2001" in Economics.

Among his other publications are Yankee Leviathan: The Origins of Central State Authority in America, 1859-1877 (Cambridge University Press, 1991) and Sectionalism and American Political Development, 1880-1980 (University of Wisconsin Press, 1984), as well as articles in the American Political Science Review, Polity, Studies in American Political Development, Social Science History, and many edited volumes and collections.

Current research includes preparation of a book manuscript entitled A Cross of Gold, A Crown of Thorns: Politics and Preferences in the 1896 Democratic National Convention.

Curriculum Vitae

Courses Taught:

Govt 611:Political Economy of American Development, 1860-1900
Govt 6151: State and Economy in Comparative Perspective
Govt 620: Political Culture
Govt 630: Institutions