Steele specializes in American intellectual and political history with an emphasis on the American Revolution and Early American Republic.

His book, “Thomas Jefferson and American Nationhood,” emphasises the centrality of nationhood to Thomas Jefferson's thought and politics, envisioning Jefferson as a cultural nationalist whose political project sought the alignment of the American state system with the will and character of the nation. It was a finalist for the George Washington Book Prize and was named a 2012 notable title by the Society for U.S. Intellectual History.