Kimberly Phillips-Fein (born August 1975) is an American historian. and the Gardiner-Kenneth T. Jackson Professor of History at Columbia University.^[1]

She was formerly a professor at the Gallatin School of Individualized Study and the History Department of the College of Arts and Science at New York University (NYU).

Her book Fear City: New York’s Fiscal Crisis and the Rise of Austerity Politics was named a finalist for the 2018 Pulitzer Prize for History.

Early life and education

Phillips-Fein was born in New York City in August 1975 and was raised in downtown Brooklyn.^[2] She received her Bachelor of Arts degree in history from the University of Chicago in 1997 before enrolling at Columbia University for her PhD.^[3]

Career

After she received her PhD, Phillips-Fein joined the faculty at New York University (NYU) and became a 2008–09 NYU Center for the Humanities Fellow.^[4] With the assistance of this fellowship, she published her first book, Invisible Hands: The Businessmen's Crusade Against the New Deal. The book is an account of how high-powered individuals fought against the legacy of the New Deal from World War to the election of Ronald Reagan as President.^[5] Following this publication, she received a Cullman Center for Scholars, Artists and Writers fellowship at the New York Public Library for the 2014–15 academic year to write her second book.^[6]

Phillips-Fein published her second book, Fear City: New York's Fiscal Crisis and the Rise of Austerity Politics, in 2017. The book "explores the causes, effects, and the legacy of New York City’s fiscal crisis of 1975".^[7] Fear City was named a finalist for the 2018 Pulitzer Prize for History^[8] and she received a 2020 Guggenheim Fellowship.^[9]