Professor Baker’s research focuses on intellectual history and the history of political culture, as well as the marquis de Condorcet, the philosopher of progress and social science who was one of the great figures of the French Enlightenment and Revolution. His research on the cultural and political origins of the French Revolution has made important contributions to the development of a new understanding of that event and of its significance for the creation of modern politics. Baker received his B.A. and M.A. from Cambridge University and his Ph.D. from University College, London, and the Institute for Historical Research, London. He served for almost a decade as co-editor of the Journal of Modern History, the leading English-language quarterly for research in modern European history. Baker has held a Guggenheim Fellowship, has been named Chevalier dans l'Ordre des Palmes Academiques and is an elected member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.