I am a senior lecturer in modern European history at the Department of European Studies of the University of Amsterdam. My specialisation is the political, cultural and intellectual history of modern Europe in a global context since the eighteenth century, in particular topics on the intersection of history, politics, law,  philosophy and memory. My main interest concerns the role of ideas in political change and 'counter-narratives' of political modernity and globlisation. I have published extensively on regime changes, state and nation formation, conservatism, cosmopolitanism, eurocentrism, (Counter) Enlightenment, ideas of Europe, and monarchy from a transnational and comparative perspective.

Biography

I studied European history at the Universities of Liverpool, Leiden and Yale, followed by a brief career as policy advisor. In 2009 I took my PhD at the History Department of the University of Amsterdam. The dissertation was based on extensive (archival) research in France and the Netherlands. In 2011 I received tenure as an universitair docent (senior lecturer). In the past decade, I conducted research in Italy, Austria, Germany, Belgium and the United Kingdom. I was appointed a senior fellow of the Netherlands Institute for Advanced Study NIAS (Yeargroup 2019-20) and held visiting positions at the Lichtenberg Kolleg & Moritz Stern Institut Göttingen, Germany (2021-22) and KU Leuven, Belgium (Fall 2022). I live in the city of Groningen in the North of the Netherlands.

Research

Currently, I have the following main (related) research interests:

1) The 'backlash' against liberal modernity from a longer historical and intellectual perspective, including topics such as Counter-Enlightenment, Counter-Revolution, Anti- and Illiberalism, and Conservatism. I consider this backlash, despite its self-professed criticism of internationalism and cosmopolitanism, primarily as the result of the transnational transfer of ideas, institutions and people, and thus essentially as a global and European phenomenon.

2) Radicalism, moderation and the history of modern democracy: I intend to write a new research monograph on the ambivalent relationship between the pursuit of political moderation, (de)polarisation, and the making of modern European democracy in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Topics adressed in the book are the memories, emotions, rituals, gendering and geographies of moderation.

(3) Historical narratives of diversity and pluralism from a global comparative perspective, in particular the idea of Europe as a 'diverse' continent. I study diversity as a constructed concept, used for many different political agenda's and in different historical contexts.

Other research interests include the uses of the Enlightenment past in contemporary political debates and the rethinking of the role of the state after Covid.

Teaching

I enjoy teaching BA and MA courses (in English and Dutch) on subjects such as Political Memories, Legacies of the Enlightenment (nominated for the 2019 Faculty Education Award), Modern Intellectual History, European Conservatism & Anti-Liberalism, Liberalism, Cosmopolitanism, Ordering of Europe and 'Turning points in Modern European History' (Folia magazine wrote about this course: "Lok weet zijn toehoorders door zijn enthousiasme te boeien"). I also supervise BA, MA and PhD theses in the field of political and intellectual history. Last but not least, I was a finalist in the 2018 Faculty of Humanities Lecturer of the Year award.

Activities

I am a founding director of the Dutch seminar for Global Intellectual History (www.globalintellectualhistory.org/) and a themeleader of the Amsterdam Centre for European Studies (ACES). I currently participate in an university wide research initiative on the 'normative foundations of modern democracy'. Moreover, I have been a member of the board of the De Moderne Tijd (demodernetijd.nl), and of the board of the ARTES Research School (theme leader 'European Identities and ideas': http://artes.uva.nl). I regularly organise and moderate public and academic debates and conferences and occasionally provide comments from a historical perspective on European contemporary affairs.

Publications (selection):

Counter-revolutionary Europe

Matthijs Lok, Europe against Revolution. Conservatism, Enlightenment and the Making of the Past (Oxford University Press 2023) (370p.)

‘Lok’s book is a brilliant work that aims to emphasize how the construction of a specific European past —based on a set of institutions and values that made the continent exceptional—was also (if not mainly) the work of the enemies of the French Revolution.’   (…)  ‘Lok’s book therefore constitutes an important work, destined to mark a landmark in European history studies, which until today have mostly insisted on the tradition linked to the importance of 1789.’   Antonio de Francesco (University of Milan)

Cosmopolitan Conservatisms

Edited volume: Matthijs Lok, Friedemann Pestel & Juliette Reboul (eds.), Cosmopolitan Conservatisms. Countering Revolution in transnational networks, ideas and Movements (c. 1700-1930) (Brill Studies in the History of Political Thought, 2021) (450 p.)

“What a pleasure it has been to read the essays in this volume, a large number of which break new ground. There are numerous thematic surprises and new takes on old material. (... ) This will be an essential resource for anyone interested in the fortunes of conservatism in the modern world.“  Darrin M. McMahon, Dartmouth College (USA)

Politics of Moderation

Edited volume: Ido de Haan & Matthijs Lok (eds.), The Politics of Moderation in Modern European History (Palgrave Studies in Political History: 2019) (ca. 250p.)

“This wide-ranging, intellectually-bracing volume reconstructs a neglected site of thought and action, which it identifies as a tradition of political moderation ever since the start of the age of democratic revolutions.  In so doing, it offers a bounty of sustained historical and analytical imagination, reshaping inquiry and understanding.”  Ira Katznelson, Columbia University (USA)

Eurocentrism in History & Memory

Edited volume: M. Brolsma, R. de Bruin & Matthijs Lok (editors), Eurocentrism in European History and Memory (Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 2019).

'This is a very insightful collection of well-written essays, covering a wide range of issues and appealing to a wide public. It is both comprehensive in its outlook, as well as rich in detail. Its refreshing and multifaceted approach provides a welcome contribution to the research on Eurocentrism.'  Journal of European Integration History

On my own chapter: 'Lok makes clear that this appraisal of the idea of Europe as ‘unity in diversity’ was maintained in the writings of influential 19th century historians like Leopold von Ranke. And today the exact same notion is deeply embedded in the political narrative of the European Union to legitimize its policies. Lok convincingly argues that the pluralist idea of Europe thus also brings in prescriptive and normative criteria and not necessarily results in tolerance towards the world beyond pluralist Europe.'  Journal of European Integration History