He is the author of Veiled Empire: Gender and Power in Stalinist Central Asia (Cornell University Press, 2004), which won both the W. Bruce Lincoln Prize and Heldt Prize. Northrop has also published articles in Slavic Review and Russian Review, to name a few. Northrop specializes in the modern history of Central Asia, but also focuses his writing and teaching on world history, environmental history, and the cultural aspects of modern colonialism.