Simon Hall received an MA in American History from the University of Sheffield in 1998 and studied for his Ph.D at Cambridge, where he later became a temporary lecturer. He has also lectured at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and spent a semester at Yale as a Fox International Fellow. He is now Senior Lecturer in American History at the University of Leeds.
His previous books include Peace and Freedom: The Civil Rights and Antiwar Movements in the 1960s (University of Pennsylvania Press) and American Patriotism, American Protest: Social Movements Since the Sixties (Routledge). 1956 is his first trade book.