Sean Adams grew up in West Virginia and received his B.A. from Purdue University (1990) and M.A. (1992) and Ph.D. (1999) from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. In 2005 he joined the faculty of the History Department at the University of Florida, where he is now Hyatt and Cici Brown Professor of History and leads the Inquire Capitalism program.
Dr. Adams has research interests in nineteenth-century U.S. History, with a particular emphasis upon political economy and industrial development. He is the author of Old Dominion, Industrial Commonwealth: Coal, Politics, and Economy in Antebellum America (2004) and Home Fires: How Americans Kept Warm in the Nineteenth Century (2014) and the editor of The Early American Republic: A Documentary History (2008), A Companion to the Era of Andrew Jackson (2013), and The American Coal Industry, 1790-1902. 3 vols. (2013) He has published articles in The Journal of American History, Enterprise & Society, Business History (UK), The Journal of Policy History, Common-place.org, and has several chapters in published collections.
Areas of Interest/Research
19th Century U.S. History; Energy, American Capitalism; Industrial Revolution; U.S. South
Contact Information
227 Keene-Flint Hall
tel: (352) 273-3354
fax: (352) 392-6927
Mailing address:
Department of History
University of Florida
P.O. Box 117320
Gainesville, FL 32611-7320