James Chappel received his PhD in history from Columbia University. He studies modern European history, and is currently completing a manuscript, tentatively entitled “Catholic Modern: Religion, Secularism, and the Remaking of Twentieth-Century Europe” (forthcoming from Harvard University Press). Among other things, the book traces the way that Catholics came to adopt a language of “human rights,” and it explores the limitations and opportunities of religious human rights language. He is generally interested in human rights, religion, and the welfare state.
