He studied at the University of Sydney (PhD), University of Marburg, and the Technical University, Berlin. Publications include the books The People’s Stage in Imperial Germany (2005), Shylock in Germany: Antisemitism and the German Theatre from the Enlightenment to the Nazis (2008), and (edited) An American Witness in Nazi Frankfurt: The Diaries of Robert W. Heingartner, 1928-1937 (2011) and numerous articles on modern German history, particularly on German Social Democracy.