#  Charles Petersen 

PhD Candidate in American Studies

 

 

 



   ![cpetersen](/sites/g/files/omnuum11566/files/styles/hwp_4_5__480x600/public/studyofcapitalism/files/ejsce_charlespetersen_melissablakall_-3_1.jpg?itok=LnMaKjB3) 

 



 

 email <cpetersen@fas.harvard.edu> 

 laptop\_windows [Charles's Personal Website](https://scholar.harvard.edu/charlespetersen) 

 

 



 

 ***"Meritocracy in America, 1930-2000"***

 Charles is a PhD candidate in American Studies with a primary field in history. His research ranges across political, intellectual, cultural, and business history, pursuing a broad study of modern political economy. His dissertation is the first history of meritocracy as an idea and a practice in the United States, focused on the intersection of high technology, education, social theory, and the Democratic party in the second half of the twentieth century. He received a B.A. in English from Carleton College in 2005. Before coming to Harvard he worked as a journalist and critic, writing for the *New York Times*, the *Nation*, and the *New York Review of Books*; he has been an editor at *n+1* magazine since 2007.



 

 

 





 

 

- ## Role
    
     [Graduate Student](/role/graduate-student) [Dissertation in Progress](/role/dissertation-progress)