Kimberly Phillips-Fein (born August 1975) is an American historian. and the Gardiner-

Kenneth T. Jackson Kenneth T. Jackson (born July 27, 1939) is an urban, social, cultural historian, author, and academic. He is the Jacques Barzun Professor Emeritus of History at Columbia University, where he has also chaired the Department of History. Jackson ...

Professor of History at

Columbia University Columbia University in the City of New York, commonly referred to as Columbia University, is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Churc ...

. 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 New York University (NYU) is a private university, private research university in New York City, New York, United States. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded in 1832 by Albert Gallatin as a Nondenominational ...

(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 The Pulitzer Prize for History, administered by Columbia University, is one of the seven American Pulitzer Prizes that are annually awarded for Letters, Drama, and Music. It has been presented since 1917 for a distinguished book about the histor ...

Early life and education

Phillips-Fein was born in New York City in August 1975 and was raised in

downtown Brooklyn Downtown Brooklyn is the third-largest central business district in New York City (after Midtown Manhattan, Midtown and Lower Manhattan), and is located in the northwestern section of the borough (New York City), borough of Brooklyn. The neighb ...

. She received her

Bachelor of Arts A Bachelor of Arts (abbreviated B.A., BA, A.B. or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is the holder of a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the liberal arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts deg ...

degree in history from the

University of Chicago The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, or UChi) is a Private university, private research university in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Its main campus is in the Hyde Park, Chicago, Hyde Park neighborhood on Chicago's South Side, Chic ...

in 1997 before enrolling at

for her PhD.

Career

After she received her PhD, Phillips-Fein joined the faculty at

(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 The New Deal was a series of wide-reaching economic, social, and political reforms enacted by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in the United States between 1933 and 1938, in response to the Great Depression in the United States, Great Depressi ...

from World War to the election of

Ronald Reagan Ronald Wilson Reagan (February 6, 1911 – June 5, 2004) was an American politician and actor who served as the 40th president of the United States from 1981 to 1989. He was a member of the Republican Party (United States), Republican Party a ...

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

and she received a 2020

Guggenheim Fellowship Guggenheim Fellowships are Grant (money), grants that have been awarded annually since by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, endowed by the late Simon Guggenheim, Simon and Olga Hirsh Guggenheim. These awards are bestowed upon indiv ...

Bibliography

Books

* * * *

Articles

* Kim Phillips-Fein, "Conspicuous Destruction" (review of

Brendan Ballou Brendan may refer to: People * Saint Brendan the Navigator (c. 484–c. 577), Irish monastic saint. * Saint Brendan of Birr (died 573), Abbot of Birr, County Offaly * Brendan (given name), a masculine given name in the English language Other uses ...

, ''Plunder: Private Equity's Plan to Pillage America'', PublicAffairs, 2023, 353 pp.; and

Gretchen Morgenson Gretchen C. Morgenson (born January 2, 1956) is an American Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist notable as longtime writer of the ''Market Watch'' column for the Sunday "Money & Business" section of ''The New York Times''. In November, 2017, she mov ...

and Joshua Rosner, ''These Are the Plunderers: How Private Equity Runs – and Wrecks – America'', Simon and Schuster, 2023, 383 pp.), ''

The New York Review of Books ''The New York Review of Books'' (or ''NYREV'' or ''NYRB'') is a semi-monthly magazine with articles on literature, culture, economics, science and current affairs. Published in New York City, it is inspired by the idea that the discussion of ...

'', vol. LXX, no. 16 (19 October 2023), pp. 33-35. " ivate equity firms create nothing and provide no meaningful services – on the contrary, they actively undermine functional companies." (p. 34.) "Tax law plays a critical part in making rivate equityfunds profitable. The 'carried interest' provision, for example, which allows most of the profits of private equity partners to be taxed at the lower capital gains rate rather than as earnings, is crucial to their self-enrichment." (p. 35.)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Phillips-Fein, Kim Living people 1975 births Columbia University alumni New York University faculty University of Chicago alumni 21st-century American historians American women historians 21st-century American women writers Columbia University faculty Historians from New York (state) Writers from Brooklyn