Nancy MacLean

Nancy MacLean
Name	Nancy MacLean
Birth date	1958
Nationality	American
Fields	American history, political history, social movements
Workplaces	Duke University, Northwestern University, University of California, Los Angeles
Alma mater	Brown University, University of Wisconsin–Madison
Notable works	Democracy in Chains, Freedom Is Not Enough
Awards	Frederick Jackson Turner Award, Lillian Smith Book Award

Nancy MacLean is an American historian whose scholarship focuses on the intersection of social movements, political economy, and the history of the modern American right. A professor of history and public policy at Duke University, she is best known for her critically acclaimed and controversial book, Democracy in Chains, which examines the ideological and strategic origins of contemporary libertarian and conservative political forces. Her work is characterized by deep archival research and an engagement with questions of power, democracy, and inequality in the United States.

Early life and education

Nancy MacLean completed her undergraduate studies at Brown University, where she earned a Bachelor of Arts degree. She then pursued graduate work in history at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, a leading institution in the field of labor history and social movement studies. At Wisconsin, she was influenced by the intellectual traditions of the Wisconsin School of labor history and completed her Ph.D. Her doctoral dissertation formed the foundation for her first major scholarly work, establishing her research focus on the dynamics of class, race, and political organizing in the twentieth-century American South.

Academic career

Following her Ph.D., MacLean held faculty positions at several major research universities. She taught at the University of California, Los Angeles before joining the history department at Northwestern University. In 1999, she moved to Duke University, where she is the William H. Chafe Professor of History and Public Policy. At Duke, she is affiliated with the Sanford School of Public Policy and has been a key figure in the university's program in the study of gender, sexuality, and feminist theory. She has also held visiting fellowships and scholarly appointments at institutions such as the National Humanities Center and the Russell Sage Foundation.

Research and scholarship

MacLean's research spans the history of labor, the civil rights movement, and the rise of the conservative movement. Her first book, based on her dissertation, explored the campaign for the Equal Rights Amendment and backlash against it. Her award-winning work, Freedom Is Not Enough, analyzed the role of the African-American struggle for employment rights in shaping the broader civil rights movement and the policy landscape of the Great Society. Her most widely debated book, Democracy in Chains, argues that the ideas of James M. Buchanan and the Virginia school of political economy have provided a strategic blueprint for a sustained, donor-funded campaign to restrict democratic governance and entrench economic privilege, influencing organizations like the Cato Institute and the Koch network.

Public engagement and media

Beyond academia, Nancy MacLean is an active public intellectual. She frequently contributes to national debates on democracy, inequality, and the history of conservatism through essays and opinion pieces in outlets like The New York Times, The Washington Post, and The Nation. She has been a featured guest on numerous media programs, including those on National Public Radio, MSNBC, and C-SPAN. Her public lectures and interviews often focus on the historical roots of contemporary political crises, making her work a frequent subject of discussion among journalists, activists, and policymakers across the ideological spectrum.

Awards and recognition

MacLean's scholarship has been recognized with several prestigious awards. Her early book on the Equal Rights Amendment earned the Frederick Jackson Turner Award from the Organization of American Historians. Freedom Is Not Enough received the Lillian Smith Book Award and the Organization of American Historians' Liberty Legacy Foundation Award. Democracy in Chains was a finalist for the National Book Award and the Los Angeles Times Book Prize, and it won the Lillian Smith Book Award. She has also received research fellowships from the American Council of Learned Societies and the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation.

Selected works

* Behind the Mask of Chivalry: The Making of the Second Ku Klux Klan * Freedom Is Not Enough: The Opening of the American Workplace * The American Women's Movement, 1945-2000: A Brief History with Documents * Debating the American Conservative Movement: 1945 to the Present * Democracy in Chains: The Deep History of the Radical Right's Stealth Plan for America

Category:American historians Category:American political writers Category:Duke University faculty Category:Brown University alumni Category:University of Wisconsin–Madison alumni Category:1958 births Category:Living people