After attending Magdalen College, Oxford, as an undergraduate, Mandler completed his PhD at Harvard[2] where he wrote a 1984 dissertation entitled Liberalism and Paternalism: The Whig Aristocracy and the Condition of England, 1830–1852.
[citation needed] While there, in 1984 he co-hosted a three-day symposium at Princeton entitled “Socialism in America,” marking the 100th anniversary of the birth of six-time presidential candidate Norman Thomas.
[6] He was President of the Royal Historical Society from 2012 to 2016, and is currently (since 2018) Chair of the Modern History section of the British Academy.
[7] Mandler's main research interests are:[3] In his review[8] of Mandler's 2002 book History and National Life,[9] historian Blair Worden states that Mandler praises the work of professional historians like Simon Schama, Linda Colley and Niall Ferguson, who address a wide audience, in contrast to most specialists of the discipline, who put their very subject at risk by speaking only between themselves.
In Mandler' own words, "there is intrinsic value in keeping the springs of knowledge 'clear and untainted' but there is greater value in ensuring that the supply reaches the consumer in something resembling its original state".