Lindsay O’Neill

My first book The Opened Letter: Networking in the Early Modern British World (Philadelphia: University of Pennsyvania Press, 2015) explored the way networks formed through letter writing helped bind together an increasing vast British world during the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries. During this period it became both easier to send a letter, as the postal system expanded, and more necessary, as the British settled across the globe. Understanding how the British used their letters illuminates how they thought about their society and how they navigated their changing geographic and communicative worlds.

My second book, The Two Princes of Mpfumo: An Early Eighteenth Century Journey into and and out of Slavery, traces the journey of two princes from south east Africa who are sold into slavery, free themselves, end up in London, and manage to manufacture a voyage home. Besides simply being a thrilling tale, the story of these two men and those who become involved with them allows us pick apart British global power in the early eighteenth century and see Africa’s engagement with and constestation of that expansion. 

At USC I teach courses on British History ranging from the 18th Century to the 20th Century. I also lead courses that explore the Early Modern Europe and the history of drink.

• Ph.D. History, Yale University, 2008
• B.A. History, Pomona College, 2001