Jeff Decker writes about politics, government, and law in twentieth-century America. He is the author of The Other Rights Revolution: Conservative Lawyers and the Remaking of American Government (Oxford University Press, 2016). That book shows how a series of legal battles over property rights and the regulatory state shaped the public ideas and policy agenda of modern U.S. conservatism. He is currently working on a political history of the late-twentieth century bull market in stocks, tentatively titled Bull: The Stock Market and the Politics of Financial Security, 1974-2000.
Professor Decker teaches courses on Money and Modern America, The Cold War in U.S. Life, American Conservatism, the 1980s, and Law & Society, as well as introductory courses and advanced seminars in American Studies. He received his B.A. from Amherst College and his Ph.D. in history from Columbia University. He joined American Studies in 2010 and also teaches in the Department of Political Science.
