Benjamin Robert Siegel

Benjamin R. Siegel is a writer and historian who uncovers how the things we consume — food, drugs, and other global commodities — have shaped modern life, from the power of states to the choices on our dinner plates. His work follows the systems behind agriculture, industry, and global trade to explain how empires ended, how markets were built, and how our most basic needs became global industries.

Across two decades of reporting and historical research, and now as a associate professor of history at Boston University, Siegel has built a career tracing how global systems reshape the most intimate parts of human life. His books examine how commodities build worlds. Hungry Nation: Food, Famine, and the Making of Modern India (Cambridge University Press, 2018), revealed how food lay at the heart of India's postcolonial nation-building project. Markets of Pain: Opium, Capitalism, and the Global History of Painkillers (Oxford University Press, 2026), tells the sweeping story of how opium built empires, global capitalism, and the modern opioid crisis.