Devin Fergus, Ph.D.

Devin Fergus is the Dengler-Dykema Professor of History and Public Affairs at Claremont McKenna College. He is the author of Land of the Fee: Hidden Costs and the Decline of the American Middle Class, which The Nation designated one of the five most important books by a scholar for understanding capitalism. His first book, Liberalism, Black Power, and the Making of American Politics, which was named a Choice Outstanding Academic Book. Professor Fergus is also an editor of the Columbia Studies in the History of US Capitalism book series published by Columbia University Press. He is a recipient of numerous fellowships, including from the Mellon Fund (Cambridge University), Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, Mellon Foundation (Emory University), the Eccles Centre for American Studies at the British Library, Rockefeller Foundation, Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History, Salzburg Global Seminar, and Northumbria University (Newcastle, UK), where he was a Resident and Non-resident Visiting Professor of American Studies from 2018-2021. Most recently, Professor Fergus was a Visiting Scholar at the Charles Warren Center at Harvard University, 2022–23 and the John Hope Franklin Fellow at the National Humanities Center, 2023-24.

Dr. Fergus is finishing two major research projects. The first project, titled Home of the Knave: White-Collar Crime, the Racial Wealth Gap, and America’s Next Middle Class, serves as both a complement and sequel to his previous book, Land of the Fee. While Land of the Fee explored how systemic economic practices perpetuate inequality, Home of the Knave shifts focus to white-collar crime and its role in widening the racial wealth gap. Together, these works construct a broader narrative of economic injustice, offering policymakers and scholars a comprehensive understanding of the mechanisms driving racial disparities in wealth and opportunity. The second project The Making and Unmaking of One America, revisits President Clinton’s Initiative on Race, focusing on the commission’s role to provide America with a roadmap for race relations in the twenty-first century. This book is being coauthored with Dr. Nishani Frazier who served as the assistant to the eminent historian Dr. John Hope Franklin, the chair of the Initiative on Race.

A frequent contributor to international media, Professor Fergus has written for or been cited in The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Atlantic, and Financial Times, among other outlets. He has served on numerous governing and advisory boards, including a current director of the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies.

Dr. Fergus received his PhD in American history from Columbia University.

He may be reached at devin.fergus@cmc.edu.