Kim Phillips-Fein

Kimberly Phillips-Fein (born August 1975) is an American historian. and the Gardiner-Kenneth T. Jackson Professor of History at Columbia University.

She was formerly a professor at the Gallatin School of Individualized Study and the History Department of the College of Arts and Science at New York University (NYU).

Her book Fear City: New York's Fiscal Crisis and the Rise of Austerity Politics was named a finalist for the 2018 Pulitzer Prize for History.

Early life and education Phillips-Fein was born in New York City in August 1975, and grew up in downtown Brooklyn. Both of her parents worked at Lincoln Hospital in the Bronx, and were active in efforts to improve the provision of services to the hospital's largely poor Black and Puerto Rican population.

Phillips-Fein earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in history from the University of Chicago in 1997, before enrolling at Columbia University, where she earned her PhD.

Career After she received her PhD, Phillips-Fein joined the faculty at New York University (NYU) and became a 2008–09 NYU Center for the Humanities Fellow. With the assistance of this fellowship, she published her first book, Invisible Hands: The Businessmen's Crusade Against the New Deal. The book is an account of how high-powered individuals fought against the legacy of the New Deal from World War II to the election of Ronald Reagan as president. Following this publication, she received a Cullman Center for Scholars, Artists and Writers fellowship at the New York Public Library for the 2014–15 academic year to write her second book.

Phillips-Fein published her second book, Fear City: New York's Fiscal Crisis and the Rise of Austerity Politics, in 2017. The book "explores the causes, effects, and the legacy of New York City's fiscal crisis of 1975". Fear City was named a finalist for the 2018 Pulitzer Prize for History and she received a 2020 Guggenheim Fellowship.