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United States Deborah Cohen is a distinguished historian of modern Britain and Europe, recognized for her extensive research and award-winning publications on societal transformations and individual experiences across various historical contexts.
Q&A with Deborah Cohen, where she discusses her role as head of the Buffett Institute.
Deborah Cohen leads the Roberta Buffett Institute for Global Affairs as its Director and holds the position of Richard W. Leopold Professor of History at the Weinberg College of Arts & Sciences.
Deborah Cohen is a regular contributor, writing on various subjects such as war photography and punk rock.
Deborah Cohen has appeared on C-SPAN networks as a Professor for the History Department at Northwestern University, featured in five videos.
Deborah Cohen is listed as the Peter B. Ritzma Professor of Humanities and Professor of History at Northwestern University, with her book 'Family Secrets' (2013) being highlighted.
Bellarmine University will host Deborah Cohen as the featured speaker for the 2025 Guarnaschelli Lecture.
Deborah Cohen, born in 1968 in Louisville, Kentucky, is a prominent American historian specializing in modern Europe and Britain. A Ukrainian-Jewish descendant, she earned her Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkeley, in 1996, following her summa cum laude graduation from Radcliffe College in 1990. Her early academic career included faculty positions at American University from 1997 to 2002 and Brown University from 2002 to 2010. She joined Northwestern University in 2010, where she is currently the Richard W. Leopold Professor of History and has served as a Faculty Affiliate and former Director of the Graduate Cluster in British Studies.
Throughout her career, Cohen’s work has spanned diverse methodological approaches, from social science-inspired comparative history to detailed biography. Her research consistently explores themes such as state and society interactions, the public narratives of private lives, and the significance of material culture. She has authored several critically acclaimed books, including ‘The War Come Home: Disabled Veterans in Britain and Germany, 1914-1939’ (2001), which examined post-World War I veteran treatment, and ‘Household Gods: The British and their Possessions’ (2006), analyzing the rise of the middle class through their material possessions. Her 2013 book, ‘Family Secrets: Shame and Privacy in Modern Britain’, delves into how British families handled sensitive issues across different eras.
More recently, Cohen published ‘Last Call at the Hotel Imperial: The Reporters Who Took on a World at War’ (2022), which received multiple prestigious awards, including the Mark Lynton History Prize, the Goldsmith Prize, and the Ralph Waldo Emerson Prize. This work, focusing on American foreign correspondents during the interwar period, was also named a best book of the year by various publications. Her contributions to historical scholarship were recognized with her election to the American Academy of Arts & Sciences in 2018. She frequently contributes to publications such as The Atlantic, New York Review of Books, London Review of Books, and The Wall Street Journal, and co-edits Cambridge University Press’ series, Modern British Histories.
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