Mark Molesky, Ph.D.

Professor
Department of History

I study a wide range of subjects in modern and early modern European history, with a particular emphasis on intellectual and cultural history. My interests include the Lisbon Earthquake of 1755, the European and American Enlightenments, environmental history, the history of science, narrative history writing, the history of Franco-American relations, World War I and II, the Holocaust, and the history of classical scholarship. My recent book, This Gulf of Fire: The Destruction of Lisbon, or Apocalypse in the Age of Science and Reason (Knopf, 2015), was awarded  the 2016 Phi Alpha Theta Book Award for Best Subsequent Book and was a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize.