Professor Hamilton studies twentieth-century U.S. political and policy history. His book From New Day to New Deal: American Farm Policy from Hoover to Roosevelt, 1928-1933 was awarded the Theodore Saloutos Prize. He has published articles in the Journal of American History, the Journal of Southern History and Agricultural History as well as essays in edited collections. He edited Problems in American Civilization: The New Deal (1999). His current projects include a biography of the economist Mordecai Ezekiel and projects pertaining to the evolution of American farm policy.