Nathan Perl-Rosenthal

Nathan Perl-Rosenthal serves as Associate Professor of History, Spatial Sciences, and Law at the University of Southern California's Gould School of Law, where his research examines political and cultural dynamics of the eighteenth- and early nineteenth-century Atlantic world.

He earned his PhD in History from Columbia University in 2011, completing a dissertation on epistolarity and revolutionary organizing. His acclaimed first book, Citizen Sailors: Becoming American in the Age of Revolution (2015), received the Society for French Historical Studies’ Gilbert Chinard Prize for its analysis of sailors' role in shaping modern nationality concepts.

Professor Perl-Rosenthal's research integrates Atlantic World History, Revolutionary Era studies, and Legal History through investigations of transnational cultural practices. His current book project The Age of Revolution: A Cultural History, ca. 1760-1820 analyzes how shared instruments like letter-writing and formal rhetoric created cross-border political coherence during revolutionary movements. He simultaneously develops socio-legal scholarship including an 18th-century Mauritius piracy prosecution study and collaborative research on the jus soli–jus sanguinis binary in nationality law formation.

His scholarly contributions appear in leading journals including the William and Mary Quarterly, American Historical Review, and Journal of the Early Republic. While his academic service and grant activities remain unspecified in source materials, his interdisciplinary work bridges historical and legal methodologies to reinterpret revolutionary-era political formation.