Historian.
In 2020, he was Professor at the University of Melbourne, which he joined in 2007: he has also worked at Macquarie University.
His book On the Stump: Campaign Oratory and Democracy in the United States, Britain, and Australia won the 2018 General History Prize in the NSW Premier's History Awards.
He is the author of a range of works on political history, including On the Stump (2017), Gandhi in the West (2011), The Little History of Australian Unionism (2006) and Dissent Events (2002).