Nicholas G. DiPucchio

Title: Assistant Professor
Office: 410B Varner Hall
Phone: (248) 370-3525
Email: [email protected]

Education:

Ph.D., Saint Louis University
B.A., Oakland University

Major Fields:

Vast Early America, the Atlantic World

Biography:

I am fascinated by Vast Early America, especially the geopolitics of the early American republic and the Atlantic Revolutions. These broad interests have led me to research topics ranging from the contested and dynamic nature of early US expansion to transatlantic conspiracy theories in nineteenth-century New England.

My book, “Before Manifest Destiny: The Contested Expansion of the Early United States,” was released by the University of Virginia Press in May 2025. The phrase manifest destiny has been mistakenly projected back into earlier decades, giving the impression that early U.S. policymakers envisioned an inevitable expansion across the continent. Rather than an unstoppable march across the continent, the story of U.S. expansion was a narrative of thwarted ambitions and unfulfilled possibilities. Halted in the Atlantic East, the Canadian North, and the Caribbean South, US expansionists eventually declared it their manifest destiny to overspread the West. My current research explores US diplomat Silas Deane's tumultuous career and how his story reveals the messy breakup of the British Empire during the American Revolution. 

In addition to my research, I teach a wide variety of courses. I have taught undergraduate courses on the Atlantic Revolutions and Political Scandals as well as the U.S., World and European survey courses. I also enjoy teaching the graduate research seminar.

Beyond the classroom, I value opportunities to promote community engagement and student activity. I help run our department’s John and Annette Carter History Comes Alive Lecture Series–a series that emphasizes lifelong learning. I also enjoy collaborating with our area high school social studies educators in organizing educational conferences, Michigan History Day, and ongoing conversations to ensure student success. 

Publications:

Book

Before Manifest Destiny: The Contested Expansion of the Early United States (Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, forthcoming May 2025).

Articles and Chapters 

“Mr. Madison’s Secret Alliance: New England Federalists, Conspiracy Theories, and Public Opinion in the Age of Napoleon,” submitted to New England Quarterly (forthcoming).

“Spanish American Independence and the Discourse of U.S. Pacific Expansion, 1815-1830,” Pacific Historical Review (accepted, forthcoming 2026).

“The Founders and Religious Freedom,” in Congress and Religion: The Intersection of Faith and Politics, eds. David Dulio and Colton C. Campbell (Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner, 2025).

 “Conquest for Commerce: American Policymakers, Bermuda, and the War for Independence, 1775-1783,” Early American Studies 18, no. 1 (Winter 2020): 61-89.

 “Where Rome Failed with Hers’: Fisher Ames, the Classics, and the Louisiana Purchase,” The Historian 80, no. 4 (December 2018): 705-720.

Public Writings

“Foreign Aid Could Secure Ukraine’s Independence,” The Detroit News, July 4, 2024.

“The Pro-Russia Conspiracy Theory That Almost Convinced New Englanders to Secede,” TIME Made By History, March 27, 2024.