His scholarship has focused on the history of modern Germany, and he is a former president of the American Historical Association (2005).

He is the author of numerous articles and several important books, including The Career of Lujo Brentano: A Study of Liberalism and Social Reform in Imperial Germany (Chicago and London: University of Chicago Press, 1966); German Liberalism in the Nineteenth Century (Chicago and London: University of Chicago Press, 1978); German History, 1770–1866 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1989); and, most recently, Where Have All the Soldiers Gone?

The Transformation of Modern Europe (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2008).

[3] Sheehan is a recipient of the Humboldt Research Prize and the Cross of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany, as well as a member of the German Order Pour le Mérite.

[4] Sheehan is married to Margaret Anderson, a historian at the University of California, Berkeley.