Robert Yee

Lecturer and Postdoctoral Associate

Yale University

robert.yee [at] yale.edu


About

I work on the economic history of modern Europe, with a focus on Britain and Germany after the First World War. My research interests include the history of political economy, business history, warfare, and international orders. I also have interests in the history of ideas, national security, transnational history, and globalization.

My first book, The Citys Defense: The Bank of England and the Remaking of Economic Governance, 1914–1939, was recently published with Cambridge University Press. It shows how the Bank maintained the status of the City of London as an international financial center after the First World War. The research for this project was awarded the Economic History Society’s Thirsk–Feinstein Dissertation Prize in 2024.

I am also working on two additional projects: one on the history of banking regulation in Germany, and another on the evolution of economic democracy across Europe in the twentieth century. A part of this research has recently appeared in the Business History Review.

My other research has appeared in Central European History, Contemporary European History, Contemporary British History, and the Financial History Review. I have received additional support from the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD), the Embassy of France’s Chateaubriand Fellowship, the Anglo-Austrian Society, the Prussian Privy State Archives, and Harvard Business School.

At Yale, I am currently a lecturer and postdoctoral associate in the Program on Ethics, Politics and Economics. I am also a faculty affiliate at the European Studies Council. I am also the 2025 Dr. Richard Hunt Fellow at the American Council on Germany. Previously, I was a junior research fellow at Wadham College, Oxford. I received a PhD and MA from Princeton University, as well as a BA from Vanderbilt University. I have also held visiting fellowships at the Humboldt University of Berlin (2021–2022) and the Paris School of Economics (2023).