UCI Department of History: FACULTY

Of special concern to me is the emergence and development of a corporate capitalist economic system in the United States during the twentieth century. I am interested in various social, political, and cultural consequences of that significant transformation, such as the rise of an interventionist state, social formations, race relations, oppositional movements, international conflict, and political ideology.

During the past several decades, an internal restructuring of the American economy (away from its manufacturing base toward the service and information sectors) has been combined with spatial shifts in investment and a massive expansion of the area of organizational control. This "global option" has been made possible by the rise of multinational corporations and by information technologies. In this process, some regions have experienced rapid growth and others have experienced severe decline. My current research examines the spatial and political consequences of these profound transformations in such emerging metropolitan regions as Orange County. I am interested in attempts to link such regions to the needs of global capital and in movements that have arisen in opposition to such linkages. In other words, how does the realm of regional politics intersect with the new global economy?