Research Interests: Early North American history

Michael Blaakman is an assistant professor in the Department of History, where he teaches courses on the era of the American Revolution. His first book, "Speculation Nation," is being published in fall 2023; it explores how the Revolution sparked the nation's first real-estate boom and accelerated Native American dispossession. Raised in Rochester, N.Y., Prof. Blaakman attended the College of William & Mary and earned his Ph.D. from Yale. He lives in Lawrenceville with his wife (a middle-school teacher) and dog, and in his spare time he enjoys gardening, watching baseball, choral singing, and sailing.