Dr. Jennifer Burns

Biography

I am a historian of twentieth century United States working at the intersection of intellectual, political, and cultural history, with a particular interest in the ideas of the state, markets, and capitalism and how they play into policy and politics. My book, 'Goddess of the Market: Ayn Rand and the American Right' (Oxford University Press, 2009), is an intellectual biography of the libertarian novelist Ayn Rand. I am currently writing a book on economist Milton Friedman. At Stanford, I have been involved in several new initiatives, including serving as faculty advisor for the Approaches to Capitalism Workshop at the Stanford Humanities Center, co-founding the Bay Area Consortium for the History of Ideas in America (BACHIA), and convening the Hoover Institution Library and Archives Workshop on Political Economy. I teach courses on modern U.S. history, religious history, and the intellectual history of capitalism. My writing on the history of conservatism, libertarianism, and liberalism has appeared in a number of academic and popular journals, including the Reviews in American History, Modern Intellectual History, Journal of Cultural Economy, New York, The New Republic, and Dissent.

Research Interests

Courses