Lloyd Kramer’s interests focus on Modern European History with an emphasis on eighteenth- and nineteenth-century France. He is particularly interested in historical processes that shape cultural identities, including the experiences of exile, transnational travel, and the emergence of modern nationalism. His work on cross-cultural interactions has focused on transatlantic history and examined the life and career of Lafayette to show how people and ideas moved between Europe and America in the revolutionary era of 1775-1830.
He began to analyze Lafayette’s actions and ideas when he worked with Stanley Idzerda and others as an assistant editor of the letters that were published in Lafayette in the Age of the American Revolution (5 vols., Cornell University Press). His later publications include Lafayette in Two Worlds: Public Cultures and Personal Identities in an Age of Revolutions (University of North Carolina Press).
Professor Kramer has also written about the roles of intellectuals in modern societies and about recent theoretical perspectives on the meaning of historical knowledge. His teaching at UNC-Chapel Hill stresses the importance of reading, discussing, and writing about influential books in various periods of European history and world history. In most general terms, his research and teaching stress the significance of cross-cultural exchanges and conflicts as key shaping forces in modern world history.