William Anthony Hay

Early Modern and Modern Britain

Department of History
Mississippi State University
Mississippi State, MS 39762
Phone: 662-325-4250
E-mail: wilhay6248@aol.com

Education
Academic Career
Current Research
Publications
Recent Awards and Fellowships
Courses Taught

William Anthony Hay is an Assistant Professor of History at Mississippi State, book review editor for Orbis: A Journal of World Affairs, and Senior Fellow with the Foreign Policy Research Institute (www.fpri.org). A specialist in British History and International Relations, Hay has published in Albion and Diplomacy and Statecraft, and given papers for American Historical Association, the North American Conference of British Studies, and the Consortium on Revolutionary Europe, 1750-1850. The Southern Conference on British Studies elected Hay to its executive board in November 2004, and he currently serves as its vice-president for program. He also coordinates a distinguished lecture series for Mississippi State's Institute for the Humanities.

Hay's first book The Whig Revival, 1808-1830 examines the changes that brought the Whigs to power in 1830 though an alliance with provincial interests that dominated British politics until 1886. Current research Britain during on the transitional era from 1780 to 1840 builds on themes raised in The Whig Revival.

Before coming to Mississippi State, Hay directed a program on European politics and U.S. foreign policy at FPRI and worked with the Presidential Oral History Program at the University of Virginia's Miller Center of Public Affairs. He lives in West Point, Mississippi with his wife Carolyn Jane and their three children.

Education:
  • Ph.D. Modern European and International History, 2000; University of Virginia. Charlottesville, Virginia. Concentrations in Early Modern Britain (1450-1760), Modern Britain (1760-present), Imperial Russia (1600-1917), and International and Transnational History (1700-present).
    Dissertation: Henry Brougham and the Whigs in Opposition, 1808-1830.
  • M.A. European History, 1992; University of Virginia. Charlottesville, Virginia. Concentrations in Modern Britain (1760-present) and European Diplomacy (1713-present).
    Thesis: The Mountain's Critique of British Foreign Policy, 1808-1822.
  • B.A. with Honors in History, 1990; University of the South. Sewanee, Tennessee. Majors in History and Philosophy.
    Honors thesis: Home Rule and the Politics of Irish History, 1870-1890.
Academic Career:
  • Assistant Professor of History, Mississippi State University, 2003.
  • Senior Fellow, Foreign Policy Research Institute, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 2002-.
  • Research Fellow, Foreign Policy Research Institute, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 2000-2002.
  • Book Review Editor for Orbis: A Journal of World Affairs, July 2001-.
  • Research Associate, Presidential Oral History Project, Miller Center of Public Affairs, University of Virginia, 1999-2000.
Current Research:
    My current work focuses primarily on a biography of Robert Banks Jenkinson, Second Earl of Liverpool and Prime Minster from 1812 to 1827. Liverpool's career provides a starting point to explore several major questions: (1) the nature of executive government, and the Prime Minister's relationship with the king, parliament, and public opinion in a political system where his source of authority originated from the Crown rather than the legislature with which he had to deal; (2) development of a two party system and the extension of British politics beyond metropolitan elites focused on court and parliament to include new provincial interest groups, a process that culminated with the 1832 Reform Act and the constitutional changes that it brought about; (3) the adumbration of British geopolitical strategy toward Europe and overseas during this pivotal era, the challenges of wartime diplomacy, and efforts to create a stable post-Napoleonic settlement in Europe; (4) the transition from 18th century mercantilist policies to a liberal trading system that reflected Britain's industrialization and command of the seas after 1815.

    Other research examines (1) changes in government policy and institutions during the transition from the first British empire following the American War of Independence and their impact on foreign policy; and (2) the emergence of 19th century liberalism and its impact on public culture, the press, and British politics.
Publications:
  • Books
    Is There Still a West? The Future of the Atlantic Alliance edited with Harvey Sicherman (University of Missouri Press: forthcoming December 2006)

    The Whig Revival, 1808-1830     (London: Palgrave-Macmillan, 2004).


  • Articles
    "What is Democracy? Liberal Institutions and Stability in Changing Societies,"  Orbis: A Journal of World Affairs 50.1(2006):133-151.

    "Henry Brougham and the 1818 Westmorland Election: A Study in Provincial Opinion and Constituency Politics," Albion 36.1(2004):28-51.

    "The Geopolitics of Europe," Orbis: A Journal of World Affairs 48.2(2003):295-310.

    "A Problem Postponed: Britain and the Future of Austria-Hungary, 1814-1918," Diplomacy & Statecraft 13.3(September 2002):57-80.

    "If there is a Mob, there is also a People=: Middle Class Politics and the Whig Revival, 1810-1830," Consortium on Revolutionary Europe: Selected Papers, 2000 (2000):396-402.

    "Reason, Truth, and Community in Samuel Johnson's Later Work," Consortium on Revolutionary Europe: Selected Papers, 1997 (1997): 53-60.

  • Book Reviews
    Reviews of books on Modern and Early Modern British history have appeared in scholarly journals including Albion, Canadian Journal of History, Journal of British Studies, Journal of Military History and the Historian.

  • Selected Papers Presented
    "Reverend Calumniators and Whig Reformers: Religion and Political Conflict in Northeastern England c.1819-1823," Consortium on Revolutionary Europe, 1750-1850. Lakeland, Florida. 2005.

    "Religion and the Politics of Late Hanoverian Reform: The Durham Clergy Case of 1821," Southern Conference on British Studies. Memphis, Tennessee. 2004.

    "The Offshore Islanders: British Debates on the Congress of Vienna and Europe=s Post-Napoleonic Settlement," American Historical Association. Washington, D.C., 2004.

    "Globalization and the Future of Security: An American Perspective," Senior Executive Seminar. George C. Marshall Center for European Security Studies. Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany, 2002.

    "County Politics and Ideology: Wordsworth, DeQuincey, and Westmorland Loyalism," Southern Conference on British Studies. New Orleans , Louisiana, 2001.

    "Henry Brougham's "Participatory Ethos" and the Politics of Whig Opposition," North American Conference on British Studies. Cambridge , Massachusetts, 1999.

    "Problems of Perspective: Britain, Austria, and the Balkans, 1914-1918," Northeast Conference on British Studies. Middletown, Connecticut, 1996.

    "Britain and the Destruction of Austria-Hungary," Carolinas Symposium on British Studies. Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, 1996.

    "Irreconcilable Differences: Balkan Railways and the Austro-Russian Entente," Graduate Symposium on Russian and East European Studies. Charlottesville, Virginia, 1995.

  • Recent Awards and Fellowships
    Jackson Brothers Visiting Research Fellowship. Beinecke Rare Books and Manuscripts Library. Yale University. Awarded 2006 for Spring 2007.

    Humanities and Arts Research Program Grant. Institute for Humanities. Mississippi State University. 2005.

    American Swiss Foundation Young Leader 2005.

    Jacob Price Visiting Research Fellowship. William L. Clements Library. University of Michigan. 2005

    Participant Grant-in-Aid for Conference on British Political Thought in History, Literature and Theory 1600-1815. Folger Institiute. Folger Shakespeare Library. Washington D.C. March 2005,

  • Courses Taught:
    History of England
    Tudor-Stuart Britain, 1485-1714*
    Modern Britain, 1485-1714*
    Modern Western World
    Early Western World
    Evolution of the International System, 1760-1989*
    Graduate Colloquium on Modern Britain, 1760-1940

    * courses split between upper level undergraduate and graduate students