Stephen G. Gross was a lecturer in the International and Area Studies program at UC Berkeley, where he taught courses on political economy, nationalism, and economic history. Gross received a PhD from Berkeley in 2010 in modern European history. His scholarship examines questions of political economy in German history, ranging from war finance to trade relations, and has appeared in journals such as Central European History. His book Export Empire: German Soft Power in Southeastern Europe, 1890–1945 explores the soft power of German economic and cultural diplomacy in Southeastern Europe during the 1920s and 1930s, showing how German businessmen aggressively sought to forge a federative European economic bloc during both the Weimar Republic and the early years of the Third Reich.