Ben’s research is concerned with the intellectual and cultural history of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries with particular reference to historical writing. His monograph, Commerce, Finance and Statecraft (Manchester University Press, 2018) explored the relationship between history writing, economic thought and migration in the eighteenth century. His other books are the scholarly edition The Politics of Tea (Pickering and Chatto, 2010) and the edited collections Historical Writing in Britain, 1688-1830 (Palgrave, 2014) and Polish Culture in Britain (Palgrave, 2023).

Ben is currently working on two projects. The first explores British and American accounts of Poland and Russia, c.1750 – c.1865. This research looks at a variety of sources – historical writing, travel literature and diplomatic records – to investigate the ways that ‘western’ writers conceptualised ideas of empire, race and slavery in ‘eastern’ Europe. The second project explores the work of émigré Polish (historians, novelists and artists) in London and Paris. 

Ben would welcome applications from postgraduate students interested in: the history of historical writing; Enlightenment intellectual history; the relationship between Britain, Poland and Russia in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.   

Ben has held fellowships from the University of Yale (2019) and the Jewish Historical Society of England (2018). He is also the author of Polish Portsmouth/Polskie Portsmouth (Portsmouth, 2018) a dual-language, illustrated pamphlet outlining the early history of Portsmouth’s Polish community.