Steve Hindle

Steve Hindle is the Derek Hirst Endowed Professor of Early Modern British History at Washington University in St. Louis and Director of Graduate Studies in History. He holds a PhD from the University of Cambridge, an MA from the University of Minnesota, and a BA from the University of Cambridge. His research focuses on social, cultural, and economic change in early modern Britain, particularly the experiences of working people during transformative periods like the Reformation, English Civil War, and Industrial Revolution. His work explores governance, social welfare policy evolution, and the interplay of agriculture and manufacturing in rural communities.

Hindle's major publications include The Social Topography of a Rural Community in Seventeenth-Century England (2023), which won the 2024 Joan Thirsk Memorial Prize, and On the Parish? (2004). He previously directed research at The Huntington Library and served as its Interim President. His current project examines mills and milling in early modern England, analyzing labor dynamics and community subsistence.

He advises graduate students on topics such as alehouse sociability, agrarian protest, and representations of vagrancy. Hindle's research integrates spatial history methodologies, offering granular insights into labor conditions and local-level social structures.