Alfred Kelly

Al Kelly joined the Hamilton faculty in 1981 after earning his bachelor’s degree at the University of Chicago and his master’s degree and doctorate from the University of Wisconsin. His scholarship, which focuses on German history and modern European cultural and intellectual history, has been supported with grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities, among others. Professor Kelly has published The Descent of Darwin: The Popularization of Darwinism in Germany,1860-1914 and The German Worker: Working-Class Autobiographies from the Age of Industrialization. He is currently working on another book titled Remembering and Forgetting: The Legacy of the Franco-Prussian War in Imperial Germany, 1871-1914.

Recent Courses Taught

• History of European Thought 1600-1830
• History of European Thought 1830-Present
• Darwin and the Darwinian Age
• Nietzsche and his Influence
• Marx and the European Left
• Origins of Modern Social Theory (with Dan Chambliss)
• The Philosophy of History
• Germany 1789-Present (also as Germany 1789-1918, Germany 1918-Present)
• Nazi Germany
• The Holocaust
• Origins of Scientific Thought
• Foundations of Modern Society
• Europe Since 1815

Research Interests

Modern European cultural and intellectual history
Modern German history

Distinctions

• National Humanities Center Fellowship, 1996-97; declined
• National Endowment for the Humanities, Fellowship for College Teachers and Independent Scholars, 1989-90
• Gertrude Flesh Bristol Fellowship, Hamilton College, 1989-90
• Margaret Bundy Scott Fellowship, Hamilton College, 1985-86
• National Endowment for the Humanities, Translations Programs Grant, summer, 1982, 1983

Appointed to the Faculty

1981

Educational Background

Ph.D., University of Wisconsin
M.A., University of Wisconsin
B.A., University of Chicago