I teach and write in the fields of international history and the United States in the world, primarily in the twentieth century. I have particular interests in colonialism and nationalism, the evolution of international society, the roles of international organizations and NGOs, and the history of global health. Regionally, I have longstanding interests in Asia and the Middle East and am learning about Africa. Thematically, I am interested in the intersections of ideas, identities, and politics; in transnational networks and flows; and in the development of institutions, norms, and practices in the international and global arenas. I also have a keen interest in conceptual and methodological aspects of writing international history.

I offer regular lecture courses on the history of the U.S. in the world as well as a range of undergraduate and graduate seminars in my fields of interest. In supervising senior theses and doctoral dissertations I am especially interested in working with students who adopt fresh approaches to the history of U.S. foreign relations and international affairs, looking at hitherto neglected actors, themes, topics, regions, or connections. 

For more information and links to publications, click on the homepage link to the right.

Selected Publications

• The Shock of the Global: The International History of the 1970s. co-editor and contributor (Harvard University Press, forthcoming in 2010)
• “A Pox on Your Narrative: Writing Disease Control into Cold War History,” Diplomatic History (forthcoming, April 2010)
• “’Peoples of Many Races’: The World beyond Europe in the Wilsonian Imagination,” in John Milton Cooper and Thomas J. Knock, eds., Jefferson, Lincoln, and Wilson: The Dilemma of Democracy and Race (University of Virginia Press, forthcoming in 2010)
• “The Wilsonian Moment in East Asia: The March First Movement in Global Perspective,” Sungkyun Journal of East Asian Studies 9, No. 1 (Apr. 2009): 11-27.
• "Reconceiving International History", Reviews in American History 37, No. 1 (March 2009): 69-77.
  
• The Wilsonian Moment: Self-Determination and the International Origins of Anticolonial Nationalism New York: Oxford University Press (2007)
• "Dawn of a New Era: The 'Wilsonian Moment' in Colonial Contexts and the Transformation of World Order, 1917-1920" in Conceptions of World Order: Global Historical Approaches Sebastian Conrad and Dominic Sachsenmaier, eds. London: Palgrave (2007)
• "Imagining Woodrow Wilson in Asia: Dreams of East-West Harmony and the Revolt against Empire in 1919" in American Historical Review 111:1327-1351 (2006)
• "A Man ahead of His Time? Wilsonian Globalism and the Doctrine of Preemption" in International Journal 60:4 (2005)
• "The Wilsonian Moment in India and the Crisis of Empire in 1919" in Yet More Adventures with Britannia Wm. Roger Louis, ed. London: I.B. Tauris (2005)
• "Good Will and Bad: Rethinking US-Egyptian Contacts in the Interwar Years" in Middle Eastern Studies 38:71-89 (2002)
• "The Wilsonian Moment and the Rise of Anticolonial Nationalism: The Case of Egypt" in Diplomacy & Statecraft 12:99-122 (2001)

 

Contact Info

Center for Government and International Studies-South Building

Room S431

1730 Cambridge Street

Cambridge, MA 02138

manela@fas.harvard.edu

617.496.6467

Office Hours: Thursday 1:00-2:30

Course(s): 1465, 2906

AHR Article on Wilsonian Moment
     in Asia

International History at Harvard

My Home Page (for additional info)

The Wilsonian Moment (book)