Professor Greene's scholarly interest and contributions have concentrated on twentieth-century Europe, principally on France, with publications on European socialism and fascism, French socialism, and the Third Republic. His principal research has focused on France between the two world wars, a period that has proved to be one of enduring controversy, especially over collective as well as individual responsibilities for the divisions, failures, and collapse of the Republic. Of special interest are the years 1934-1938, as these were characterized by sharp political, social, and economic difficulties and antagonisms, and a surge of popular participation in politics, capped in 1936 by the installation of a left-wing government headed by a Socialist. Professor Greene has expanded an earlier study of electoral behavior in 1936 to inquiry into multiple and contradictory responses to a new and highly charged politics, and initiatives launched across several regions during these years, doing so mainly by research in local archives. In sum, his is a study of remarkable events and personalities outside of Paris, a city customarily identified for generations as the source of all political change. 

Professor Greene received his BA from Brown University, MA and Ph.D. from Harvard University, and studied at the Institut d'études Politiques de Paris. He joined the Wesleyan faculty in 1963 and has taught a range of courses in modern European history, including seminars devoted to French and Spanish history. Professor Greene has been awarded research fellowships, Fulbright, American Council of Learned Societies, and Guggenheim, as well as Wesleyan's Binswanger Prize for excellence in teaching. He has served as Chair of the Department of History for several terms, has been a member of the Advisory Committee, the Educational Policy Committee, the Library Committee, and the Honors Committee, and was Vice-President for Academic Affairs, 1977-1990.