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Prof Frank Trentmann

Positions held:
  • Professor of History, School of Historical Studies
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  • Overview

    Overview

    Highlights

    • For a full CV go here:

      听

      I am a historian of modern Britain, Germany and the world. My work explores the interplay between material, political and moral transformations. I am Professor of History at 糖心logo入口 College, University of London, and also a Professor at the University of Helsinki, Centre for Consumer Society Research. I have written about consumer culture; energy and water; everyday life; trade and political economy. In addition to academic audiences, my research has engaged with a wide range of groups and stakeholders, from government ministries to school children, companies and consumer groups, museums, media and visual artists.

      Before joining 糖心logo入口, I was Assistant Professor at Princeton University. I was educated at Hamburg University, the London School of Economics (BA), and at Harvard University (MA, PhD)

      I was the principal investigator of the AHRC project 鈥淢aterial Cultures of Energy鈥 (2014-17), a member of the EPSRC鈥揈SRC research centre DEMAND (Dynamics of Energy, Mobility and Demand), and from 2002 to 2007, the director of the 拢5 million Cultures of Consumption research programme, co-funded by ESRC and AHRC.

      I have been Visiting Fellow at the Cambridge Centre for History and Economics, Fernand Braudel Senior Fellow at the European University Institute, Florence as well as a Visiting Professor at Bielefeld University, the University of St Gallen, the British Academy, and the 脡cole des hautes 茅tudes en sciences sociales, Paris. In 2014 I was awarded the Moore Distinguished Fellowship at Caltech, in 2017 the Humboldt Prize for Research (Humboldt-Forschungspreis) by the Alexander-von-Humboldt Foundation. In 2023, I was awarded the Bochum Historians' Prize.

    • My latest book explains how Germany has ended up in crisis and how it can get out of it 鈥 Die blockierte Republik: Deutschland zwischen Vergangenheit und Zukunft (S. Fischer, 2025). It uses the past to illuminate the present and shows how change is possible.

      My previous book, Out of the Darkness, the Germans 1942-2022, tells the story of the German people from the Second World War to the present and assesses their moral transformation, and its limits. The book has been published simultaneously in English and German in November 2023 by AllenLane/Penguin (UK) and Fischer (Germany), followed by an American edition by Knopf and translations in French, Dutch and Russian, with a Chinese edition forthcoming.The book was shortlisted for the 2024 Wolfson History Prize and ranked Number One among the most important political books of 2023 by S眉ddeutsche Zeitung, and Number One in the top ten non-fiction book list by Die Zeit, ZDF, Deutschlandfunk, taz for December 2023 and for January 2024. It was a Book of the Year in The New Yorker, Der Spiegel, Daily Telegraph, Trouw, de Volkskrant and the Washington Post.

      For review see 听

    • My earlier book Empire of Things: How We Became a World of Consumers, Fifteenth Century to the Twenty-First unfolds the rise of our material world and examines the global challenges of our relentless pursuit of more 鈥 from waste and debt to stress and inequality. 690 pages text, 72 illustrations. UK edition: Allen Lane 2016; US edition: HarperCollins 2016; Penguin paperback February 2017. The book has appeared in several foreign editions: German (DVA and Pantheon); Italian (Einaudi); Russian听 (Eksmo); Turkish (Pegasus Yayinlari); a Complex Chinese translation in Taiwan (Ye-ren); a simplified Chinese translation with Ginkgo in mainland China. Audiobook: audible. Book of the Year: The Times, The Sunday Times, Times Literary Supplement; BBC History Magazine; Bloomberg; Exame (Brazil). Shortlisted for the NDR non-fiction prize (Germany). Winner of the Austrian Wissenschaftsbuch/science book prize in 2018 for the best book in the humanities, social sciences and cultural studies.

      For articles and reviews, see:听听

    • I was guest editor of the special issue of the Science Museum Group Journal on 鈥渕aterial cultures of energy鈥, 9 (spring听 2018), http://journal.sciencemuseum.ac.uk/issues/spring-2018/ . I have written the introduction to the exhibition catalogue Object love (2018), curated and edited by Anne Berk, Museum Hedendaagse Kunst, Sittard听 (Netherlands), and Museum Morsbroich (Germany).

      I have communicated academic research to public audiences, e.g. most recently in an article for Der Spiegel (9 Dec. 2023: "Dare More Empathy") and an article 鈥淭he Unequal Future of Consumption鈥, in The New Republic (Sept 2020), and published articles in The Guardian; Huffington Post; La Repubblica; Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung; Times Literary Supplement. TV and radio appearances, including BBC, Arte, NDR, Deutschlandfunk, Swiss TV.

    • Lectures and keynotes to public and academic audiences include:

      鈥欶ree Trade鈥, with Lord Chris Fox, Liberal History Group, National Liberal Club, 27 Jan 2026

      鈥楥onsumption and Sustainability: History of a Troubled Relationship鈥, Keynote: SCORAI Europe Conference 2025 (Sustainable Consumption Research and Action Initiative), Lund, Sweden, 8 April 2025.

      鈥楪renzen des Konsums鈥 (Limits of Consumption), 50th anniversary of the Club of Rome report, Bundesumweltministerium (Federal Ministry of the Environment), Berlin, 10 October 2022.

      鈥淐onsuming and Mobility鈥, invited lecture to BMW, Munich (digital), 30 June 2020.

      鈥淢aterial Histories of the World鈥, keynote to the History Conference of Denmark, M/S Maritime Museum of Denmark, Elsinore/Helsing酶r, 20 August 2018.

      鈥淣achhaltiger Konsum鈥, Nachhaltigkeitskongress "Mehr TateN! - Mehr Zukunft", 10 Jahre Nachhaltigkeitsstrategie Baden-W眉rttemberg, Stuttgart 13 April 2018.

      鈥淭he Social Life of Energy Futures: Experts, Users and Standards in the Golden Age of Modernization鈥 (with Rebecca Wright), Lisbon, World Energy Council, Secretaries Strategy Day, 16 October 2017.

      鈥淭he Power of Things: A New History of Consumer Society鈥, Yale University, Annual Lecture of the Center for Historical Enquiry & the Social Sciences, 7 March 2017.

      鈥淢aterielle Kultur und Konsumenten: Potenzial und Herausforderung f眉r eine nachhaltige Entwicklung鈥 (Material Culture and Consumers: Opportunities and Challeges for Sustainable Development) Carl-von-Carlowitz lecture, annual congress of the German Rat f眉r Nachhaltigkeit (the German government鈥檚 Council for Sustainability), Berlin, 3 June 2015

      鈥淪cales of Disruption鈥, 糖心logo入口, 10 February 2015. Workshop with Defra, DECC, EDF, Transport for London, Climate UK.

    • My previous 听publications include Free Trade Nation: Consumption, Civil Society and Commerce in Modern Britain (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008), recipient of the Whitfield Prize by the Royal Historical Society for the best first book on British history; a Japanese edition appeared with NTT Publishing Co., Tokyo; for reviews, see 听; The Oxford Handbook of the History of Consumption (Oxford University Press, 2012; editor); Food and Globalization (Oxford: Berg, 2008, with Alexander N眉tzenadel); Beyond Sovereignty: Britain, Empire, and Transnationalism, c. 1860-1950 (Palgrave Macmillan, 2007, with Kevin Grant and Philippa Levine); Consuming Cultures, Global Perspectives: Historical Trajectories, Transnational Exchanges (Oxford: Berg, 2006, with John Brewer); Time, Consumption, and Everyday Life (Oxford: Berg, 2009, with Elizabeth Shove and Rick Wilk); Work in progress: Economy and environment in the hand of experts (Munich: oekom, 2018 with Anna Barbara Sum and Manuel Rivera); Infrastructures in Practice: The Evolution of Demand in Networked Societies (London: Routledge, 2018, with Elizabeth Shove), and Scarcity in the Modern World: History, Politics, Society and Sustainability, 1800-2075 (London: Bloomsbury, 2019, with Fredrik Albritton Jonsson, John Brewer and Neil Fromer).

      My scholarly articles have appeared in major journals, including Past & Present, The Historical Journal, Journal of British Studies, Journal of Historical Geography, and Environment and Planning.

    Office hours

    Office hours in autumn 2025: 3:50-5:50pm, 28 Russell Square, room 105. Please schedule an appointment in advance to avoid clashes/delays by e-mailing: f.trentmann@bbk.ac.uk

  • Research

    Research

    Research interests

    • My work has focused on consumption, politics, morality and material culture. I have written about consumer culture; everyday life; water and the modern city; free trade and fair trade; and energy. History of morality in modern/contemporary Germany
  • Supervision and teaching

    Supervision and teaching

    Supervision

    Supervisions within 糖心logo入口:
    3

    I welcome enquiries from prospective PhD students who are interested in undertaking research in any of my areas of research interest.

    Teaching

    Teaching modules

    • Research Skills for Historians
    • Consumers, Empires and Globalisation,1500 to 2000
    • Planning Historical Research
  • Publications

    Publications

    Article

    • Trentmann, Frank (2026) . Collections: A Journal for Museum and Archives Professionals ISSN 1550-1906.
    • Trentmann, Frank (2024) . SGR-Schriften (Stiftung Geschichte des Ruhrgebiets) Schriften ISSN 1615-4495.
    • Trentmann, Frank (2023) . Journal of Modern European History 21 (4), pp. 420-423. ISSN 1611-8944.
    • Trentmann, Frank (2020) . The New Republic 251 (9), ISSN 0028-6583.
    • Trentmann, Frank (2020) . Times Literary Supplement ISSN 0040-7895.
    • Trentmann, Frank (2020) . History ISSN 0018-2648.
    • Trentmann, Frank and Carlsson-Hyslop, A. (2018) . Historical Journal 61 (3), pp. 807-839. ISSN 0018-246X.
    • Trentmann, Frank and Otero-Cleves, A.M. (2017) . Historia Critica 65, pp. 13-28. ISSN 0121-1617.
    • Taylor, V. and Trentmann, Frank (2011) . Past and Present 211 (1), pp. 199-241. ISSN 0031-2746.
    • Trentmann, Frank (2011) . Contemporary European History 20 (1), pp. 27-31. ISSN 0960-7773.
    • Trentmann, Frank (2011) . Recherches Britanniques: Soci茅t茅, culture, politique en Grande-Bretagne du 18猫me au 21猫me si猫cle 1 (1), pp. 37-51.
    • Trentmann, Frank (2009) . Journal of British Studies 48 (2), pp. 283-307. ISSN 0021-9371.
    • Trentmann, Frank (2009) . Archiv f眉r Sozialgeschichte 49, pp. 107-128. ISSN 0066-6505.
    • Taylor, V. and Chappells, H. and Medd, W. and Trentmann, Frank (2009) . Journal of Historical Geography 35 (3), pp. 568-591. ISSN 0305-7488.
    • Trentmann, Frank (2009) . Journal of Consumer Culture 9 (2), pp. 187-220. ISSN 1469-5405.
    • Trentmann, Frank (2007) . Environment and Planning D: Society and Space 25 (6), pp. 1079-1102. ISSN 1472-3433.
    • Trentmann, Frank (2006) . Economic Sociology: The European Electronic Newsletter 7 (2), pp. 22-25.
    • Trentmann, Frank (2004) . Journal of Contemporary History 39 (3), pp. 373-401. ISSN 0022-0094.
    • Trentmann, Frank (1998) . Review of International Political Economy 5 (2), pp. 217-251. ISSN 0969-2290.
    • Trentmann, Frank (1997) . Historical Research 70 (171), pp. 70-98. ISSN 0950-3471.
    • Trentmann, Frank (1996) . The Historical Journal 39 (4), pp. 1005-1048. ISSN 0018-246X.
    • Trentmann, Frank (1995) . Financial History Review 2 (1), pp. 73-79. ISSN 0968-5650.
    • Trentmann, Frank (1994) . Journal of Contemporary History 29 (4), pp. 583-625. ISSN 0022-0094.

    Book

    • Trentmann, Frank (2023) . Allen Lane. ISBN 9780241303498.
    • Brewer, J. and Fromer, N. and Albritton Jonsson, F. and Trentmann, Frank, eds. (2019) . London, UK: Bloomsbury Academic. ISBN 9781350040915.
    • Wright, R. and Shin, H. and Trentmann, Frank (2019) . Munich, Germany: Oekom Verlag. ISBN 9783962380441.
    • Shove, E. and Trentmann, Frank, eds. (2018) . Abingdon, UK: Routledge. ISBN 9781138476165.
    • Trentmann, Frank and Sum, A.B. and Riviera, M., eds. (2018) . pp. 103-130. Munich, Germany: Oekom verlag. ISBN 9783962380106.
    • Trentmann, Frank (2016) . London, UK: Penguin.
    • Trentmann, Frank (2016) . Carl-von-Carlowitz. 5, Munich, Germany: oekem Verlag. ISBN 9783865818263.
    • Trentmann, Frank, ed. (2012) . Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780199561216.
    • Trentmann, Frank (2009) . Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780199567324.
    • Shove, E. and Trentmann, Frank and Wilk, R. (2009) . Cultures of Consumption Series. Oxford, UK: Berg. ISBN 9781847883643.
    • Trentmann, Frank (2009) . Contemporary British History Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press. ISSN 1361-9462. ISBN 9780199567324.
    • Trentmann, Frank, ed. (2009) . London, UK: Smith Institute. ISBN 1905370431.
    • Nuetzenadel, A. and Trentmann, Frank (2008) . Oxford, UK: Berg. ISBN 9781845206796.
    • Bevir, M. and Trentmann, Frank, eds. (2007) . Consumption and Public Life. Basingstoke, UK: Palgrave Macmillan. ISBN 9781349355037.
    • Grant, K. and Levine, P. and Trentmann, Frank (2007) . Basingstoke, UK: Palgrave Macmillan. ISBN 9781349540891.
    • Trentmann, Frank and Soper, K., eds. (2007) . Consumption and Public Life. Palgrave Macmillan. ISBN 9780230553460.
    • Trentmann, Frank and Brewer, J., eds. (2006) . Cultures of Consumption Series. Oxford, UK: Berg Publishers. ISBN 9781845202477.
    • Trentmann, Frank, ed. (2006) . Cultures of Consumption Series. Oxford, UK: Berg Publishers. ISBN 9781845202491.
    • Trentmann, Frank and Flemming, J., eds. (2006) . Basingstoke, UK: Palgrave Macmillan. ISBN 9781349541072.
    • Trentmann, Frank and Hall, J., eds. (2005) . Basingstoke, UK: Palgrave Macmillan. ISBN 9781403915429.
    • Trentmann, Frank and Daunton, M., eds. (2004) . Basingstoke, UK: Palgrave Macmillan. ISBN 9781403932181.
    • Bevir, M. and Trentmann, Frank, eds. (2004) . Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 9780521044516.
    • Trentmann, Frank, ed. (2003) . Oxford, UK: Berghahn Books. ISBN 9781571811431.
    • Bevir, M. and Trentmann, Frank, eds. (2002) . London, UK: Palgrave Macmillan. ISBN 9780230505728.

    Book section

    • Trentmann, Frank (2025) . In: Lenel, L. and Nuetzenadel, A. and Streb, J. and K枚hler, I. (eds.) The Routledge Handbook of Economic Expectations in Historical Perspective. Routledge. pp. 395-407. ISBN 9781032458601.
    • Trentmann, Frank (2019) . In: Duina, F. (ed.) States and Nations, Power and Civility: Hallsian Perspectives. Toronto, Canada: University of Toronto Press. ISBN 9781487502379.
    • Chappells, H. and Trentmann, Frank (2019) . In: Shove, E. and Trentmann, Frank (eds.) Infrastructures in Practice: The Dynamics of Demand in Networked Societies. Abingdon, UK: Routledge. ISBN 9781138476165.
    • Shin, Hiroki and Trentmann, Frank (2019) . In: Brewer, J. and Fromer, N. and Albritton Jonsson, F. and Trentmann, Frank (eds.) Scarcity in the Modern World: History, Politics, Society and Sustainability, 1800鈥2075. London, UK: Bloomsbury Academic. pp. 247-266. ISBN 9781350040915.
    • Albritton Jonsson, F. and Brewer, J. and Fromer, N. and Trentmann, Frank (2019) . In: Brewer, J. and Fromer, N. and Albritton Jonsson, F. and Trentmann, Frank (eds.) Scarcity in the Modern World: History, Politics, Society and Sustainability, 1800鈥2075. London, UK: Bloomsbury Academic. pp. 1-20. ISBN 9781350040915.
    • Reinisch, Jessica (2018) . In: Trentmann, Frank and Sum, A.B. and Riviera, M. (eds.) Work in Progress. Economy and Environment in the Hands of Experts. Munich, Germany: Oekom. pp. 103-130. ISBN 9783962380106.
    • Trentmann, Frank (2017) . In: Berghoff, H. and Logemann, J. and R枚mer, F. (eds.) The Consumer on the Home Front: Second World War Civilian Consumption in Transnational Perspective. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780198784265.
    • Trentmann, Frank (2017) . In: Arnold, John H. and Hilton, M. and Rueger, Jan (eds.) History after Hobsbawm: Writing the Past for the Twenty-First Century. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780198768784.
    • Trentmann, Frank (2016) . In: Doering-Manteuffel, A. and Raphael, L. and Schlemmer, T. (eds.) Vorgeschichte der Gegenwart Dimensionen des Strukturbruchs nach dem Boom. Gottingen, Germany: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht. pp. 293-308. ISBN 9783525300787.
    • Trentmann, Frank (2009) . In: Shove, E. and Trentmann, Frank and Wilk, R. (eds.) Time, Consumption, and Everyday Life. Oxford, UK: Berg, Oxford. pp. 67-84. ISBN 9781847883643.
    • Trentmann, Frank (2008) . In: Nuetzenadel, A. and Trentmann, Frank (eds.) Food and Globalization: Consumption, Markets and Politics in the Modern World. Cultures of Consumption Series. Oxford, UK: Berg Publishers. ISBN 9781845206796.
    • Everson, Michelle and Joerges, C. (2008) . In: Trentmann, Frank and Soper, K. (eds.) Citizenship and Consumption New York. Consumption and Public Life. London, UK: Palgrave Macmillan. ISBN 9780230553460.
    • Trentmann, Frank (2006) . In: Trentmann, Frank and Brewer, John (eds.) Consuming cultures, global perspectives: historical trajectories, transnational exchanges. Cultures of Consumption Series. Oxford, UK: Berg Publishers. pp. 19-69. ISBN 9781845202460.
    • Trentmann, Frank (2006) . In: Trentmann, Frank and Just, F. (eds.) Food and Conflict in Europe in the Age of the Two World Wars. Basingstoke, UK: Palgrave Macmillan. pp. 13-48. ISBN 9781403986849.
    • Trentmann, Frank and Just, F. (2006) . In: Trentmann, Frank and Just, F. (eds.) Food and Conflict in Europe in the Age of the Two World Wars. Basingstoke, UK: Palgrave Macmillan. pp. 1-12. ISBN 9781403986849.
    • Trentmann, Frank (2006) . In: Garon, S. and Maclachlan, P.L. (eds.) The Ambivalent Consumer: Questioning Consumption in East Asia and the West. New York, USA: Cornell University Press. pp. 21-44. ISBN 9780801473029.
    • Trentmann, Frank (2006) . In: Merriman, J. and Winter, J. (eds.) Europe since 1914: Encyclopaedia of the Age of War and Reconstruction. Detroit, USA: Charles Scribner's Sons. pp. 704-717. ISBN 9780684313689.
    • Trentmann, Frank (2006) . In: Howe, A. and Morgan, S. (eds.) Rethinking Nineteenth-Century Liberalism: Richard Cobden Bicentenary Essays. Aldershot, UK: Ashgate Publishing Ltd. pp. 264-288. ISBN 9781138259348.
    • Trentmann, Frank (2006) . In: Hall, J.A. and Schroeder, R. (eds.) An Anatomy of Power: The Social Theory of Michael Mann. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. pp. 285-305. ISBN 9780521615181.
    • Hall, John A. and Trentmann, Frank (2005) . In: Hall, John A. and Trentmann, Frank (eds.) Civil society: A reader in history, theory and global politics. Basingstoke, UK: Palgrave Macmillan. pp. 1-25. ISBN 1 4039 1542 3.
    • Trentmann, Frank (2005) . In: Trentmann, Frank (ed.) The making of the consumer: knowledge, power and identity in the modern world. Oxford, UK: Berg Publishers. pp. 1-27. ISBN 1845202481.
    • Trentmann, Frank and Taylor, V. (2005) . In: Trentmann, Frank (ed.) The making of the consumer: knowledge, power and identity in the modern world. Oxford, UK: Berg Publishers. pp. 53-79. ISBN 1845202481.
    • Trentmann, Frank and Daunton, Martin (2004) . In: Daunton, Martin and Trentmann, Frank (eds.) Worlds of political economy: knowledge and power in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Basingstoke, UK: Palgrave Macmillan. pp. 1-23. ISBN 1 4039 3218 2.
    • Trentmann, Frank (2004) . In: Glasius, M. and Lewis, D and Seckinelgin, H. (eds.) Exploring Civil Society: Political and Cultural Contexts. Abingdon, UK: Routledge. pp. 26-35. ISBN 9780415325462.
    • Trentmann, Frank (2004) . In: Berghoff, H. and Vogel, J. (eds.) Wirtschaftsgeschichte als Kulturgeschichte: Dimensionen eines Perspektivenwechsels. Frankfurt, Germany: Campus. pp. 405-434. ISBN 9783593375960.
    • Trentmann, Frank (2003) . In: Loades, D. (ed.) Reader鈥檚 Guide to British History. Abingdon, UK: Routledge. pp. 523-529. ISBN 9781579582427.
    • Trentmann, Frank (2003) . In: Loades, D. (ed.) Reader鈥檚 Guide to British History. Abingdon, UK: Routledge. pp. 798-802. ISBN 9781579582427.
    • Trentmann, Frank (2002) . In: O'Brien, Patrick Karl and Winch, Donald (eds.) The political economy of British historical experience, 1688鈥1914. Oxford: Oxford University Press. pp. 215-242. ISBN 0 19 726272 4.
    • Trentmann, Frank (2001) . In: Daunton, Martin and Hilton, Matthew (eds.) The politics of consumption: material culture and citizenship in Europe and America. Oxford: Berg Publishers. pp. 129-163. ISBN 9781859734667.
    • Trentmann, Frank (1996) . In: Biagini, E. (ed.) Citizenship and Community: Liberals, Radicals and Collective Identities in the British Isles, 1865-1931. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. pp. 219-250. ISBN 9780521893602.

    Editorial

    • Trentmann, Frank (2007) . Journal of Consumer Culture 7 (2), pp. 147-158. Sage. ISSN 1469-5405.
    • Morgan, B. and Trentmann, Frank (2006) . Journal of Consumer Policy 29 (4), pp. 345-335. Springer. ISSN 0168-7034.
    • Bevir, M. and Trentmann, Frank (2001) . International Society for the Study of European Ideas: The European Legacy 6 (2), Taylor & Francis.

    Monograph

    • Trentmann, Frank (1997) . Harvard University.