Daniel Amsterdam
Associate Professor
- School of History and Sociology
- Development Studies Program
Overview
Dan Amsterdam's research and teaching focus on modern U.S. political history, urban history, and the history of U.S. social and educational policy. He is currently completing a book that traces conservative efforts to limit court-ordered school desegregation and, more recently, voluntary school integration programs from the late 1960s through the present. It is under contract with the University of Pennsylvania Press. In addition to his first book, Roaring Metropolis: Businessmen’s Campaign for a Civic Welfare State, he has authored or co-authored scholarship that has appeared in the Journal of American History, the Journal of Urban History, the Journal of Urban Affairs, the History of Education Quarterly, and in essay collections focused on American politics and political economy. A former Visiting Scholar at the American Academy of Arts and Sciencies, he has received the Outstanding Teacher of the Year Award from the student advisory board of Georgia Tech's Ivan Allen College of Liberal Arts and has twice been awarded Georgia Tech's Class of 1940 Course Survey Teaching Effectiveness Award. He has served as the School of History and Sociology's graduate director and as its undergraduate director.
- University of Pennsylvania, Ph.D.; Graduate Certificate in Urban Studies.
- Brown University, M.A.T.
- Yale University, B.A.
Interests
- Communities, Places, and the Environment
- Education Policy
- Politics, Power, and Inequalities
Focuses:
- United States
- Inequality and Social Justice
- Race/Ethnicity
- Governance
Courses
- HIST-2112: United States since 1877
- HTS-2101: Research Methods
- HTS-3011: City in American Hist
- HTS-4001: Seminar in US History
- HTS-4011: Seminar in Sociology
- HTS-4699: Undergraduate Research
- HTS-6101: Soc & Pol Hist of U.S.
Publications
Selected Publications
Books
- Roaring Metropolis: Businessmen's Campaign for a Civic Welfare State
Date: 2016
Journal Articles
- Toward the Resegregation of Southern Schools: African American Suburbanization and Historical Erasure in Freeman v. Pitts
In: History of Education Quarterly [Peer Reviewed]
Date: 2017
- Before the Roar: U.S. Unemployment Relief after World War I and the Long History of a Paternalist Welfare Policy
In: Journal of American History [Peer Reviewed]
Date: 2015
- Introduction, From Site to Place?: Michael B. Katz's Reflections on a Changing Field
In: Journal of Urban History
Date: 2015
- Immigration and the New Metropolitan Geography
In: Journal of Urban Affairs [Peer Reviewed]
Date: 2010
Chapters
- The President, Congress, and Federal Social Policy in the 1970s
In: The Presidency and American Capitalism since 1945, ed. Mark H. Rose and Roger Biles [Peer Reviewed]
Date: 2017
- Toward a Civic Welfare state: Business and City-Building in the 1920s
In: Capital Gains: Business and Politics in Twentieth-Century America, ed. Kim Phillips-Fein and Richard R. John [Peer Reviewed]
Date: 2017
Other Publications
- Immigration 1930 to the Present
In: Greater Philadelphia and the World: A New History for the Twenty-First Century, Vol. 3
Date: 2025
- Review of "Beyond the New Deal Order: U.S. Politics from the Great Depression to the Great Recession"
In: Journal of Interdisciplinary History
Date: 2022
- Review of "Brahmin Capitalism: Frontiers of Wealth and Populism in America's First Gilded Age"
In: Enterprise and Society
Date: 2020
All Publications
Books
- Roaring Metropolis: Businessmen's Campaign for a Civic Welfare State
Date: 2016
Journal Articles
- Toward the Resegregation of Southern Schools: African American Suburbanization and Historical Erasure in Freeman v. Pitts
In: History of Education Quarterly [Peer Reviewed]
Date: 2017
- Before the Roar: U.S. Unemployment Relief after World War I and the Long History of a Paternalist Welfare Policy
In: Journal of American History [Peer Reviewed]
Date: 2015
- Introduction, From Site to Place?: Michael B. Katz's Reflections on a Changing Field
In: Journal of Urban History
Date: 2015
- Immigration and the New Metropolitan Geography
In: Journal of Urban Affairs [Peer Reviewed]
Date: 2010
Chapters
- The President, Congress, and Federal Social Policy in the 1970s
In: The Presidency and American Capitalism since 1945, ed. Mark H. Rose and Roger Biles [Peer Reviewed]
Date: 2017
- Toward a Civic Welfare state: Business and City-Building in the 1920s
In: Capital Gains: Business and Politics in Twentieth-Century America, ed. Kim Phillips-Fein and Richard R. John [Peer Reviewed]
Date: 2017
Other Publications
- Immigration 1930 to the Present
In: Greater Philadelphia and the World: A New History for the Twenty-First Century, Vol. 3
Date: 2025
- Review of "Beyond the New Deal Order: U.S. Politics from the Great Depression to the Great Recession"
In: Journal of Interdisciplinary History
Date: 2022
- Review of "Brahmin Capitalism: Frontiers of Wealth and Populism in America's First Gilded Age"
In: Enterprise and Society
Date: 2020
Updated: Feb 15th, 2026 at 10:54 AM