Trentmann is professor of history in the Department of History, Classics and Archaeology at Birkbeck College, University of London. He was educated at Hamburg University, the London School of Economics and Political Science, and at Harvard University, where he completed his PhD. He has taught at Princeton University and at Bielefeld University. He was Fernand Braudel Senior Fellow at the European University Institute. He is a specialist in the history of consumption.

His latest book ‘Empire of Things: How We Became a World of Consumers, Fifteenth Century to the Twenty-First’, unfolds the rise of our modern material world and examines the global challenges of our relentless pursuit of more – from waste and debt to stress and inequality. The book, translated into six languages, was in 2016 chosen as the book of the year by The Times and was winner of the Austrian Wissenschaftsbuch/science book prize in 2018 for the best book in the humanities, social sciences, and cultural studies.
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Frank Trentmann shared his story at our Sogeti Summit 2023, for which we gathered some of the most visionary speakers to share their insights around the theme 'Scarcity in Abundance'.