Columbia University
Neer, Robert
Lecturer
Office Hours
Summer 2022: After every class
Education
Ph.D. - Columbia University, 2011
M. Phil. - Columbia University, 2007
M.A. - Columbia University, 1991
J.D. - Columbia University, 1991
A.B. - Harvard College, 1986
Interests and Research
Robert Neer's historical research examines the intersection of U.S. military power, economic and cultural globalization, and international law in the 20th and 21st centuries. His book Napalm, An American Biography, the first comprehensive history of the incendiary weapon, was published by the Belknap Press of Harvard University Press,
He has taught at Columbia since 2006: as a Preceptor and Teaching Assistant from 2006-2011; as a Core Lecturer from 2011-2014; and as a summer Lecturer since then. He received the TOMS Core Faculty Fellow award for excellence in teaching in 2013-2014.
He also teaches global business and law as an Associate Professor at the Hult International Business School in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Between 1991 and 2005 he founded, developed and sold media businesses in London, Los Angeles, Singapore, Hong Kong, and Boston, worked for the Howard Dean and John Kerry presidential campaigns, and served as Campaign Manager for Los Angeles County District Attorney Gil Garcetti's successful first run for office.
Between college and law school he studied Southeast Asian politics at the National University of Singapore as a Fulbright Scholar, worked as a fund manager for the Lazard Asia investment bank in Hong Kong, wrote freelance news and travel articles for The Boston Globe and The Asian Wall Street Journal, among other periodicals, and traveled to all seven continents.
Neer co-founded BlueMassGroup.com in 2004, the most widely read independent political blog in New England, and wrote for the site until 2016. In 2007, he wrote Barack Obama for Beginners: An Essential Guide, distributed by Random House, the best selling title in the 23-year history of its publisher For Beginners books. The firm published a revised and expanded Presidential Edition in 2009. It has been translated into Russian.