# Adam Tooze

> Adam Tooze is the Kathryn and Shelby Cullom Davis Professor of History at Columbia University, Director of the European Institute, and one of the most widely-read public intellectuals in economics and geopolitics. His newsletter Chartbook on Substack has over 181,000 subscribers and his books - including The Wages of Destruction, Crashed, and Shutdown - have reshaped how historians, economists, and policymakers understand financial crises, the Nazi economy, and global disorder. He popularized the term 'polycrisis' and co-hosts the Foreign Policy podcast Ones and Tooze. Known for his extraordinary output, analytical range, and willingness to publicly revise his views, Tooze is that rare figure who straddles academic history and live economic commentary with equal authority.

- **Role:** Kathryn and Shelby Cullom Davis Professor of History at Columbia University; Director, European Institute
- **Organizations:** Columbia University, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, ZOE Institute for Future-fit Economies, European Council on Foreign Relations, Foreign Policy (podcast host)
- **From:** London, England
- **Nationality:** British-American
- **Education:** Secondary School, Highgate School, London, BA in Economics, King's College, Cambridge, Postgraduate Study, Free University of Berlin, PhD in Economic History, London School of Economics
- **Known for:** Philip Leverhulme Prize for Modern History (2002), Wolfson History Prize for The Wages of Destruction (2006), Longman/History Today Book of the Year (2007)

## Career timeline

- **1967** — Born in London, England on 5 July
- **1973** — Family moved to Heidelberg, West Germany (father was a molecular biologist)
- **1989** — Graduated King's College Cambridge with BA in Economics
- **1989** — Moved to Berlin for postgraduate study; witnessed the fall of the Berlin Wall
- **1996** — Completed PhD at LSE on 'Official Statistics and Economic Governance in Interwar Germany'
- **1996** — Joined University of Cambridge as Reader in Twentieth-Century History
- **2001** — Published Statistics and the German State, 1900-1945
- **2002** — Won Philip Leverhulme Prize for Modern History
- **2006** — Published The Wages of Destruction; won Wolfson History Prize
- **2009** — Appointed Barton M. Biggs Professor of History at Yale; succeeded Paul Kennedy as Director of International Security Studies
- **2011** — Visiting Professor in Military History at West Point
- **2014** — Published The Deluge; won LA Times Book Prize for History
- **2015** — Appointed Kathryn and Shelby Cullom Davis Professor of History at Columbia University
- **2018** — Published Crashed: How a Decade of Financial Crises Changed the World
- **2019** — Won Lionel Gelber Prize; named Foreign Policy Top Global Thinker of the Decade
- **2020** — Launched Chartbook newsletter on Substack (November)
- **2021** — Published Shutdown: How Covid Shook the World's Economy; launched Ones and Tooze podcast with Foreign Policy
- **2022** — Joined board of ZOE Institute for Future-fit Economies
- **2025** — Became U.S. citizen, citing concerns about green card status under Trump administration
- **2025** — Keynote speaker at Berlin Summit 2025 on global order

## Achievements

- Philip Leverhulme Prize for Modern History (2002)
- Wolfson History Prize for The Wages of Destruction (2006)
- Longman/History Today Book of the Year (2007)
- Los Angeles Times Book Prize for History for The Deluge (2015)
- Lionel Gelber Prize for Crashed (2019) - Canada's most prestigious foreign affairs nonfiction prize
- Foreign Policy Top Global Thinker of the Decade (2019)
- Chartbook newsletter surpassed 181,000 subscribers
- Popularized the term 'polycrisis' in mainstream discourse
- Succeeded Paul Kennedy (Rise and Fall of the Great Powers) at Yale's International Security Studies
- Represented by the Wylie Agency, one of the world's most prestigious literary agencies

## Latest updates

- **2026-03** — Chartbook assessed Trump's first year back in power as 'an intense augmentation of the global polycrisis'; Chartbook issues past #407
- **2025-11** — Published major Foreign Policy essay 'The End of Development?' on global aid and Trump's America First agenda
- **2025-09** — Revisited the 'polycrisis' concept in Chartbook, suggesting it may be losing descriptive power as the landscape evolves
- **2025-04** — Keynote speaker at Berlin Summit 2025
- **2025-01** — Became a U.S. citizen, publicly citing anxiety about green card status under Trump administration

## Links

- Website: https://adamtooze.com
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/adam-tooze-17566612a/
- Twitter/X: https://x.com/adam_tooze
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/adamtooze1/

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Profile page: https://yespress.io/adam-tooze
Published by YesPress — https://yespress.io
Last updated: 2026-04-23