Born in Cairo, studied at London and US universities. Student of Eric Hobsbawn, author of One Hundred Years of Socialism, Mona Lisa, The Culture of the Europeans, Mussolini and the Rise of Fascism, and Morbid Symptoms: An Anatomy of a World in Crisis.
His works are translated into twelve languages, including Chinese, Korean, and Estonian.
His latest book, The Anxious Triumph: A Global History of Capitalism, 1860-1914, was published by Penguin Publishing Group in 2019 and translated in Italy, Spain, and South Korea.