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Andrew Wender Cohen

Andrew Wender Cohen

Contact Information:

awcohe01@syr.edu

315.443.3320

305 Maxwell Hall

Andrew Wender Cohen

Professor, History Department


Senior Research Associate, Campbell Public Affairs Institute

Courses

  • 2024 Spring
    • HST 102 American History Since 1865
    • HST 496 Distinction Thesis in History
  • 2023 Fall
    • HST 386 Crime and Society in American History, 1620 to Present
    • HST 495 Distinction Thesis in History
    • HST 401 Senior Seminar - U.S. Civil War
  • 2023 Spring
    • HST 102 American History Since 1865
    • HST 496 Distinction Thesis in History
  • 2022 Fall
    • HST 386 Crime and Society in American History, 1620 to Present
    • MAX 123 Critical Issues for the United States
    • HST 495 Distinction Thesis in History
  • 2022 Spring
    • HST 386 Crime and Society in American History, 1620 to Present
    • HST 496 Distinction Thesis in History
    • HST 401 Senior Seminar - U.S. Civil War

Highest degree earned

Ph.D., Department of History, University of Chicago, 1999

Bio

Andrew Wender Cohen has published two books, "Contraband: Smuggling and the Birth of the American Century" (Norton, 2015) and "The Racketeer’s Progress: Chicago and the Struggle for the Modern American Economy, 1900-1940" (Cambridge, 2004), as well as several articles, notably “Enforcing Gender at the Polls: Transing Voters and Women’s Suffrage before the American Civil War” in the Journal of Social History (2023) and “Smuggling, Globalization, and America’s Outward State, 1870-1909” in the Journal of American History (2010).

Cohen recently completed a biography entitled "Gangster of New York: Louis Bieral and the Violent Nineteenth Century." His current research project, “Anthony Comstock’s Gilded Age,” will examine sex, law and politics in the post-Civil War era.

He has won fellowships from the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, the American Council of Learned Societies, the National Humanities Center, among others. He co-edits a book series on “American Business, Politics, and Society” with the University of Pennsylvania Press and sits on the editorial boards of Reviews in American History and Law and History Review.

Areas of Expertise

United States history, law, crime, political economy

Research Interests

Modern United States History
Law, Political Economy, and the State
Social History and Class Formation

Selected Publications

  • Books
    • Cohen, A. W., Contraband: Smuggling and the Birth of the American Century. W.W. Norton & Co, 2015.
    • Cohen, A. W., The Racketeer’s Progress: Chicago and the Struggle for the Modern American Economy, 1900-1940. Cambridge University Press, 2004.
  • Journal Articles
    • Cohen, A. W., "Enforcing Gender at the Polls: Transing Voters and Women’s Suffrage before the American Civil War." Journal of Social History, 2023.
    • Cohen, A. W., "Smuggling, Globalization, and America’s Outward State, 1870-1909." Journal of American History, 2010.

Presentations and Events

History of Capitalism Seminar, Newberry Library (October 6, 2023)

British American Nineteenth-Century History Conference, British American Nineteenth-Century History Association, "The State: Economy and Finance" (September 22, 2023 - September 24, 2023)

History of Capitalism Seminar, Newberry Library (January 27, 2023)

Work, Capitalism, And Democracy: Past, Present, and Future, Center for the Study of Work, Labor, and Democracy, "Incarceration and Capitalism: Rethinking the Historical Relationship" (May 20, 2022 - May 21, 2022)

Cohen, A. W., Faulkner, C., History Department Workshop, "Other Suffragists, Other Stories: Women’s Rights, Gender, and Illicit Voting before the Civil War" (November 6, 2020)

Woman Suffrage and Women’s Citizenships in the Long History of the 19th Amendment, "'Women Voters and Male Violence in Antebellum America' " (January 8, 2020 - January 10, 2020)

Previous Teaching Appointments

Associate Professor – Department of History – Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs – Syracuse University – 2005 to Present.

Assistant Professor – Department of History – Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs – Syracuse University – 1999 to 2005.

J. Willard Hurst Fellow – Institute for Legal Studies – U. of Wisconsin Law School – 1997 to 1999.

Researcher – Public Citizen’s Congress Watch, Washington, D.C. – 1991. 

Honors and Accolades

Citation for Excellence in Graduate Education, Syracuse University (2019)

Otey and Barbara Scruggs History Faculty Scholar, Syracuse University (2012 - 2015)

Fellow, American Council of Learned Societies (2010 - 2011)

American Fellow, Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study (2005 - 2006)

Daniel Patrick Moynihan Award, Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs, Syracuse University (2005)