Sophia Rosenfeld
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Sophia Rosenfeld (born 29 November 1966) is an American
historian A historian is a person who studies and writes about the past and is regarded as an authority on it. Historians are concerned with the continuous, methodical narrative and research of past events as relating to the human race; as well as the st ...
. She specializes in European intellectual and cultural history with an emphasis on
the Enlightenment The Age of Enlightenment or the Enlightenment; german: Aufklärung, "Enlightenment"; it, L'Illuminismo, "Enlightenment"; pl, Oświecenie, "Enlightenment"; pt, Iluminismo, "Enlightenment"; es, La Ilustración, "Enlightenment" was an intel ...
, the trans-Atlantic
Age of Revolution The Age of Revolution is a period from the late-18th to the mid-19th centuries during which a number of significant revolutionary movements occurred in most of Europe and the Americas. The period is noted for the change from absolutist monarc ...
s, and the legacy of the eighteenth century for modern
democracy Democracy (From grc, δημοκρατία, dēmokratía, ''dēmos'' 'people' and ''kratos'' 'rule') is a form of government in which people, the people have the authority to deliberate and decide legislation ("direct democracy"), or to choo ...
. In 2017, she was named the Walter H. Annenberg Professor of History at the
University of Pennsylvania The University of Pennsylvania (also known as Penn or UPenn) is a private research university in Philadelphia. It is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and is ranked among the highest-regarded universitie ...
.


Life and career

Rosenfeld received her B.A. from
Princeton University Princeton University is a private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and one of the ...
, and Ph.D. from
Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of high ...
in 1996. Before coming to the University of Pennsylvania Rosenfeld taught at the
University of Virginia The University of Virginia (UVA) is a public research university in Charlottesville, Virginia. Founded in 1819 by Thomas Jefferson, the university is ranked among the top academic institutions in the United States, with highly selective ad ...
and
Yale University Yale University is a Private university, private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the List of Colonial Colleges, third-oldest institution of higher education in the United Sta ...
. In 2014–15, Rosenfeld was a Member at the
Institute for Advanced Study The Institute for Advanced Study (IAS), located in Princeton, New Jersey, in the United States, is an independent center for theoretical research and intellectual inquiry. It has served as the academic home of internationally preeminent schola ...
, where she researched how the maximization of choice gradually developed across the Atlantic world into a proxy for freedom in human rights struggles and consumer culture. Her book ''Democracy and Truth'' was praised in the ''New Yorker'''s "Briefly Noted" book reviews: “Rosenfeld’s conclusion is sobering: even if the relationship between democracy and truth has long been vexed, the crisis facing Western democracies today is distinctly new.” In 2017, she was appointed the Walter H. Annenberg Professor of History.


Works

* ''Democracy and Truth: A Short History'' (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2019) * ''The Choices We Make: The Roots of Modern Freedom'' (forthcoming; under contract with Princeton University Press) * '' Common Sense: A Political History'' (Harvard University Press, 2011; paperback 2014) . * ''A Revolution in Language: The Problem of Signs in Late Eighteenth-Century France'' (Stanford University Press, 2001; paperback 2004) . * ''A Cultural History of Ideas'' (6 volume series covering antiquity to present, to be published by Bloomsbury Academic), General Editor (with Peter Struck, Classics, University of Pennsylvania), in progress.


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Rosenfeld, Sophia 1966 births Living people American women historians 20th-century American historians 20th-century American women writers 21st-century American historians 21st-century American women writers Dwight-Englewood School alumni Princeton University alumni Harvard University alumni University of Pennsylvania faculty University of Pennsylvania historian Walter H. Annenberg Professor University of Virginia faculty Yale University faculty Historians from New Jersey