Get to know Stanford Historians: Steven Press
Steven Press is Associate Professor of History whose teaching and research focuses on sovereignty, international relations, and commodity networks in modern Europe and European colonies. He is the author of two award-winning books, Rogue Empires: Contracts and Conmen in Europe's Scramble for Africa (Harvard University Press, 2017) and Blood and Diamonds: Germany's Imperial Ambitions in Africa (Harvard University Press, 2021). His third book, Europe's Little Anarchy: The Rise and Fall of Neutral Moresnet, is forthcoming with Cornell University Press in late 2026. In 2025-26 academic year, he is teaching four courses: HISTORY 9N: How to Start Your Own Country: Sovereignty and State-Formation in Modern History, HISTORY 238J/338J: The European Scramble for Africa, COLLEGE 102 Citizenship in the 21st Century, and HISTORY 37D/137D Germany’s Wars and the World, 1848-2010.
What is one thing from your research that you wish more people knew about?
I wish more people knew about the history of diamonds. The practice of giving diamond engagement rings may seem ancient, even eternal. In fact, this practice is a recent, invented tradition that took hold well after diamonds had ceased to be rare. It is also a practice that is wrapped up in complicated economic and humanitarian concerns.
If you could highlight a rarely-known historical issue to the broader public, what would it be?
The world is full of spaces that seem to complicate our understanding of “nation-states” as normal: Hong Kong, Puerto Rico, and the European Union, to name just some, seem to be anomalies. In fact, these bodies are windows into how the “nation-state” was and is only one alternative for political organization. When we add up the places that are different and reexamine the places that are “normal,” the “nation-state” starts to look more like the abstract concept that it is – and less like the inevitable destination in international relations.
What is one unexpected activity Stanford undergraduates might encounter in your classes?
Students in my HISTORY 9N: How to Start Your Own Country introsem review historical treaties, paying close attention to the language used to describe governmental powers, jurisdiction, and money. They are often surprised by, and enjoy, how the treaties are deliberately ambiguous and structured in such a way as to conceal certain dynamics from the public.
What skills do students develop in your courses that benefit them regardless of their major?
Students get a deep perspective on territorial changes at the global level. As a result, they often start to see many current events they hear or read about in a different way. They become more conversant in the movements behind the headlines and may even gain the ability to anticipate some other headlines coming.
What is one historical mystery that keeps you up at night? Why should we be fascinated by it too?
I am mainly interested in the nineteenth- and early-twentieth-century history of Europe. Perhaps the greatest historical question in that period is why World War One started in July/August 1914. I find this question endlessly fascinating, not least because of the lack of consensus more than a century on. I frequently try to think about decision making in the early 1900s to design potential courses for hotspots around the world in 2026 – for instance, the South China Sea.
If you could travel back to any time and place you studied, where and when would you choose?
I would choose the Berlin West Africa Conference in 1884-85. This notorious gathering of mostly European diplomats is generally understood to have presided over the political carving up of Africa, in the process accelerating the colonization of Africa by Europe. There is still much we do not know about the conference: what secret deals were negotiated away from the main halls, for example, or how naive certain participants might have been about the implications of their acts.
What would you recommend for those who would like to learn more about your work?
I’d recommend my conversation with NPR’s Planet Money in January 2025 about Greenland and the history of U.S. purchases of territory.