Kevin Boyle’s op-ed on ideological extremism is featured in The Atlantic
May 7, 2023
Kevin Boyle, William Smith Mason Professor of American History at Northwestern, has been published in The Atlantic. Boyle’s op-ed, How Relatives Can Make Radicals, explores the influence of family members on radical extremism.
“The conventional wisdom about radicalization is that ideas attract people to extremist movements and to the violence those movements commit,” Boyle writes. “Very often, what differentiates those who commit overt violence is their personal ties to others in the movement. Because although extremist movements are ideological, extremist violence turns out to be strikingly social.”
Boyle (Ph.D., University of Michigan, 1990) is a historian of the twentieth-century United States, with a particular interest in modern American social movements. He is currently at work on The Splendid Dead, a micro-history of political extremism and repression in the early twentieth century.
Read the full article here.
Society & Policy
Joel Mokyr wins Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences
October 13, 2025
Nobel recognizes Mokyr’s theory on sustained economic growth Joel Mokyr, the Robert H. Strotz Professor of Arts and Sciences and professor of economics and history in the Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences at Northwestern University, today (Oct….
Weinberg College faculty and graduate students recognized for excellence in teaching
July 2, 2025
Each year, the Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences and the Office of the Provost recognizes members of the College’s tenure-line and teaching-track faculty for excellence in teaching. Weinberg College in addition recognizes the contributions…
Passion for the planet: A new generation of environmental stewards starts here
May 29, 2025
Over the last two decades, the Weinberg College-housed Program in Environmental Policy and Culture (EPC) at Northwestern has embraced the humanities and social sciences and cultivated a new generation of environmental stewards. Growing up in…
The real beneficiaries of protective labor laws for women
May 20, 2025
During the first half of the 20th century, many states passed labor laws in response to the influx of women into the modern workplace. The so-called protective labor laws enacted by U.S. states restricted women’s…