Charles W. Ingrao (born 1948) is an historian and public intellectual focused on early modern
Central Europe
Central Europe is an area of Europe between Western Europe and Eastern Europe, based on a common historical, social and cultural identity. The Thirty Years' War (1618–1648) between Catholicism and Protestantism significantly shaped the area' ...
and the contemporary
Balkans
The Balkans ( ), also known as the Balkan Peninsula, is a geographical area in southeastern Europe with various geographical and historical definitions. The region takes its name from the Balkan Mountains that stretch throughout the who ...
. Born and raised in New York City, he attended Richmond Hill High School. He received his BA from
Wesleyan
Wesleyan theology, otherwise known as Wesleyan– Arminian theology, or Methodist theology, is a theological tradition in Protestant Christianity based upon the ministry of the 18th-century evangelical reformer brothers John Wesley and Charles W ...
in 1969 and his PhD from
Brown
Brown is a color. It can be considered a composite color, but it is mainly a darker shade of orange. In the CMYK color model used in printing or painting, brown is usually made by combining the colors orange and black. In the RGB color model used ...
in 1974, studying under Norman Rich and William F. Church. He is a professor of history at
Purdue University
Purdue University is a public land-grant research university in West Lafayette, Indiana, and the flagship campus of the Purdue University system. The university was founded in 1869 after Lafayette businessman John Purdue donated land and money ...
and has held visiting positions around the world. In 2001, he founded and still directs “The Scholars' Initiative." This project seeks to use the work of scholars to undermine nationalist interpretations of the recent past that have made peace in the Balkans difficult. As of 2011, the project had brought together over 300 scholars from 30 nations, including all of the states of the former
Yugoslavia
Yugoslavia (; sh-Latn-Cyrl, separator=" / ", Jugoslavija, Југославија ; sl, Jugoslavija ; mk, Југославија ;; rup, Iugoslavia; hu, Jugoszlávia; rue, label=Pannonian Rusyn, Югославия, translit=Juhoslavija ...
.
Background
Ingrao was born on March 15, 1948. He is an authority of the early modern period in Germany and Central Europe, publishing numerous books and scholarly articles on various political, economic, and cultural topics. He has served as editor of the Austrian History Yearbook (1997-2006) is Founding Editor of Purdue University Press's “Central European Studies” series (1997 to the present). In October 1991, he founded HABSBURG, "the first Internet discussion group dedicated to an historical theme." He has been the recipient of numerous grants and fellowships including three
Fulbright
The Fulbright Program, including the Fulbright–Hays Program, is one of several United States Cultural Exchange Programs with the goal of improving intercultural relations, cultural diplomacy, and intercultural competence between the people of ...
awards, NEH grants, and an
Alexander von Humboldt Foundation
The Alexander von Humboldt Foundation (german: Alexander von Humboldt-Stiftung) is a foundation established by the government of the Federal Republic of Germany and funded by the Federal Foreign Office, the Federal Ministry of Education and Resear ...
Fellowship. In 2015, he was awarded the “Discovery Excellence Award for the Humanities” from Purdue University.
Although Ingrao initially published on the early modern history of the
Habsburg monarchy
The Habsburg monarchy (german: Habsburgermonarchie, ), also known as the Danubian monarchy (german: Donaumonarchie, ), or Habsburg Empire (german: Habsburgerreich, ), was the collection of empires, kingdoms, duchies, counties and other polities ...
and the
Holy Roman Empire
The Holy Roman Empire was a Polity, political entity in Western Europe, Western, Central Europe, Central, and Southern Europe that developed during the Early Middle Ages and continued until its Dissolution of the Holy Roman Empire, dissolution i ...
, he refocused his scholarship to ethnic coexistence and conflict during the
Yugoslav Wars
The Yugoslav Wars were a series of separate but related#Naimark, Naimark (2003), p. xvii. ethnic conflicts, wars of independence, and Insurgency, insurgencies that took place in the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, SFR Yugoslavia from ...
in the 1990s. Shortly after the
Srebrenica massacre
The Srebrenica massacre ( sh-Latn-Cyrl, separator=" / ", Masakr u Srebrenici, Масакр у Сребреници), also known as the Srebrenica genocide ( sh-Latn-Cyrl, separator=" / ", Genocid u Srebrenici, Геноцид у Сребрен ...
, he made the first of over fifty trips to the Balkan war zones to heighten public awareness of the contrast between region's history of ethnic coexistence and the humanitarian catastrophe wrought by ethnic nationalism. In 1996, he uncovered evidence of the Clinton administration's duplicity in shielding war criminals from arrest that was reported by NPR and the New York Times. This brought him into the public debate and intra-governmental struggle over US policy. By the late 1990s, he was a regular interview subject for print, radio and television news stories in Europe and North America, as well as a recurring guest on PBS's NewsHour with Jim Lehrer. His focus on the interplay of history and contemporary policymaking led to a series of nationally and internationally syndicated columns and guest lectures across North America, Europe and China before academic, governmental and military audiences, including the US State Department, several US Embassies abroad, the US Capitol, the
British House of Commons
The House of Commons is the lower house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Like the upper house, the House of Lords, it meets in the Palace of Westminster in London, England.
The House of Commons is an elected body consisting of 650 mem ...
,
S.H.A.P.E. headquarters, and the
National Defense University
The National Defense University (NDU) is an institution of higher education funded by the United States Department of Defense, intended to facilitate high-level education, training, and professional development of national security leaders. As ...
.
The Scholars' Initiative
He also helped develop “The Scholars' Initiative: Confronting the Yugoslav Controversies,” which brought both regional and international scholars together to examine the origins and course of the conflict in order to dispel myths and half-truths that disrupt dialogue and reconciliation. Over the next eight years eleven multinational research teams published four volumes. With the appearance of ''Confronting the Yugoslav Controversies'' in 2009, the project presented the first common narrative of the conflict intended to serve as the basis for mutual understanding and political moderation. The group's efforts have garnered considerable media attention both in the region and abroad, including strident criticism from the nationalist circles in
Bosnia
Bosnia and Herzegovina ( sh, / , ), abbreviated BiH () or B&H, sometimes called Bosnia–Herzegovina and often known informally as Bosnia, is a country at the crossroads of south and southeast Europe, located in the Balkans. Bosnia and He ...
,
Croatia
, image_flag = Flag of Croatia.svg
, image_coat = Coat of arms of Croatia.svg
, anthem = "Lijepa naša domovino"("Our Beautiful Homeland")
, image_map =
, map_caption =
, capit ...
, and
Serbia
Serbia (, ; Serbian language, Serbian: , , ), officially the Republic of Serbia (Serbian language, Serbian: , , ), is a landlocked country in Southeast Europe, Southeastern and Central Europe, situated at the crossroads of the Pannonian Bas ...
, as well as from former Ambassador
Richard Holbrooke
Richard Charles Albert Holbrooke (April 24, 1941 – December 13, 2010) was an American diplomat and author. He was the only person to have held the position of Assistant Secretary of State for two different regions of the world (Asia from 1977 ...
after exposing the Clinton Administration's role in shielding Serbian wartime leader
Radovan Karadžić
Radovan Karadžić ( sr-cyr, Радован Караџић, ; born 19 June 1945) is a Bosnian Serb politician, psychiatrist and poet. He was convicted of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes by the International Criminal Tr ...
from arrest.
Books
''In Quest and Crisis: Emperor Joseph I and the Habsburg Monarchy'' (West Lafayette, IN: Purdue University Press, 1979). Expanded German edition: ''Josef I. Der “vergessene” Kaiser'' (Vienna, Graz and Cologne: Styria Verlag, 1982).
''The Hessian Mercenary State: Ideas, Institutions, and Reform under Frederick II, 1760-1785'' (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1987).
ed., ''State & Society in Early Modern Austria'' (W. Lafayette, IN: Purdue University Press, 1994).
''The Habsburg Monarchy 1618-1815'' (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1994; 2nd edition, 2000; 3rd edition, 2019). Expanded Serbian edition: ''Habzburška monarhija 1618-1815'' (Belgrade: Republika, 2014).
with Lazar Vrkatić, ''Nenaučena Lekcija: srednjoeuropska ideja I srpski nacionalni program'' (Untaught Lessons: the Central European Idea and the Serbian National Program) (Belgrade: International Helsinki Federation for Human Rights, 2001).
with Thomas Emmert, "Resolving the Yugoslav Controversies: a Scholars’ Initiative,"
ationalities Papers, 32/4 (2004) Republished as ''Conflict in Southeastern Europe at the End of the Twentieth Century: a Scholars’ Initiative'' (New York & London: Routledge, 2006).
ed. with Franz Szabo, ''The Germans and the East'' (W. Lafayette, IN: Purdue University Press, 2007).
with Thomas Emmert, ''Confronting the Yugoslav Controversies: a Scholars’ Initiative'' (West Lafayette: Purdue University Press and U.S. Institute of Peace Press, 2009, revised/expanded 2nd ed. 2012). Revised BCS edition: ''Suočavanje s jugoslovenskim kontroverzama'' (Sarajevo: Buy Book, 2010.). Updated and expanded Montenegrin edition (Podgorica: University of Podgorica Press, 2015).
with Nikola Samardžić and Jovan Pešalj, ''The Peace of Passarowitz, 1718'' (West Lafayette, IN: Purdue University Press, 2011).
Selected articles
*“‘Barbarous Strangers': Hessian State and Society during the American Revolution,” ''The American Historical Review'' 87 (1982), 954-76.
*“The Problem of Enlightened Absolutism and the German States,” ''The Journal of Modern History'', 58 (1986), S161-80. Reprinted in: ''The Enlightenment: Critical Concepts in Historical Studies'' (New York: Routledge, 2009)
*“Paul W. Schroeder's Balance of Power: Stability or Anarchy?,” ''The International History Review'', Vol 16, No. 4 (November, 1994), 681-700.
*“Understanding Ethnic Conflict in Central Europe: an Historical Perspective,” ''Nationalities Papers'', 27:2 (June, 1999), 291-318, 331-32. Expanded Serbian edition: “Deset nenau enih lekcija o Srednjoj Evropi - pogled istori ara,” in Charles Ingrao and Lazar Vrkatić, ''Nenaučena Lekcija: srednjoeuropska ideja I srpski nacionalni program'' (International Helsinki Federation for Human Rights - Belgrade, 2001), 7-36.
*“Weapons of Mass Instruction: Schoolbooks and Democratization in Central Europe,” ''Contexts: the
Journal of Educational Media, Memory, and Society
''Journal of Educational Media, Memory, and Society'' is a peer-reviewed academic journal published by Berghahn Books on behalf of the Leibniz Institute for Educational Media , Georg Eckert Institute. The journal aims to broaden our understanding ...
'' (New York & Oxford: Berghahn 2008), 199-209
*“Reconstructing History in the Former Yugoslavia: the Scholars’ Initiative,” ''The American Historical Review'' 114 (2009), 947-962.
*“Challenges to Democracy in Montenegro,” US Department of State website blogs.america.gov/bythepeople/2009/10/29.
References
{{authority control
American historians
Wesleyan University alumni
Brown University alumni