Jonathan M. Hansen

Jonathan M. Hansen is Lecturer in Social Studies and Faculty Associate, David Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies, at Harvard University. An intellectual historian by training, he is the author of The Lost Promise of Patriotism: Debating American Identity, 1890-1920 (Chicago, 2003) and Guantanamo: An American History (Hill and Wang, 2011), along with articles, editorials, and book reviews on U.S. imperialism, nationalism, cosmopolitanism, and race and ethnicity. He is currently working on two projects: one, a history of apology, combines longitudinal analysis of apology in Western culture reaching back to classical literary and sacred texts with a latitudinal examination of apology and reconciliation projects across cultures, continents, and oceans; the second, a history of post traumatic stress syndrome in American wars, explores whether and in what forms PTSD existed before the idea of “trauma” became commonplace. Born in Philadelphia and educated at Haverford College and Boston University, Hansen lives with his family in Belmont, Massachusetts.