Richard is a former President of Corpus Christi College, Oxford and Emeritus Rhodes Professor of American History. His research and publications centre on the interplay of politics and religion in the United States before and during the Civil War. Winner of the Lincoln Prize, he has a special interest in the life, presidency, and international legacy of the sixteenth US president, Abraham Lincoln. His most recent book, Righteous Strife: How Warring Religious Nationalists Forged Lincoln’s Union was published in 2025.
Richard is a Fellow of the British Academy and a Founding Fellow of the Learned Society of Wales. The Lincoln Academy of Illinois elected him in 2009 to the Order of Lincoln, the state’s highest honour. In the Queen’s Birthday Honours 2019 he received a CMG for services to the study of American History in the UK and the USA.