David Gordon Blackbourn (born 1949 in Spilsby, Lincolnshire, England) is Cornelius Vanderbilt Distinguished Chair of History at

Vanderbilt University Vanderbilt University (informally Vandy or VU) is a private research university in Nashville, Tennessee. Founded in 1873, it was named in honor of shipping and rail magnate Cornelius Vanderbilt, who provided the school its initial $1-million ...

, where he teaches modern German and European history. Prior to arriving at Vanderbilt, Blackbourn was Coolidge Professor of History at

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...

Career

Blackbourn went to Leeds Modern School (now

Lawnswood School Lawnswood School is a mixed secondary school and sixth form located in the Lawnswood area of Leeds, West Yorkshire, England. The school was founded in 1972 and had its first comprehensive intake in 1974. Its predecessors were the Leed ...

), and then read history at

Christ's College, Cambridge Christ's College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. The college includes the Master, the Fellows of the College, and about 450 undergraduate and 170 graduate students. The college was founded by William Byngham in 1437 as ...

, before moving to Jesus College. After completing his dissertation at Jesus College, Blackbourn became a lecturer at

Queen Mary College Queen Mary University of London (QMUL, or informally QM, and previously Queen Mary and Westfield College) is a public university, public research university in Mile End, East London, England. It is a member institution of the federal University of ...

in 1976, before joining the faculty of

Birkbeck College Birkbeck, University of London (formally Birkbeck College, University of London), is a public university, public research university, located in Bloomsbury, London, England, and a constituent college, member institution of the federal Universit ...

in 1979. In 1992 Blackbourn moved to the

USA The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country Continental United States, primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., ...

, where he was Coolidge Professor of History at Harvard, and served as director of the university's Minda de Gunzburg Center for European Studies from 2007 to 2012. He was awarded a

Guggenheim Fellowship Guggenheim Fellowships are grants that have been awarded annually since by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation to those "who have demonstrated exceptional capacity for productive scholarship or exceptional creative ability in the ar ...

in 1994. He was chair of the Harvard History Department from 1998 to 1999 and again from 2000 to 2002. In 2007, he was elected a Fellow of the

American Academy of Arts and Sciences The American Academy of Arts and Sciences (abbreviation: AAA&S) is one of the oldest learned societies in the United States. It was founded in 1780 during the American Revolution by John Adams, John Hancock, James Bowdoin, Andrew Oliver, and ...

. As of July 2018, Blackbourn is compiling a transnational history of Germany in the world from 1500 to 2000. He is on the editorial board of the journal '' Past & Present''; the academic advisory board of the Institute for European History, Mainz; and the advisory board of the Friends of the German Historical Institute, Washington. He was president of the Conference Group on Central European History of the

American Historical Association The American Historical Association (AHA) is the oldest professional association of historians in the United States and the largest such organization in the world. Founded in 1884, the AHA works to protect academic freedom, develop professional s ...

(since 2012 called Central European History Society) in 2003–2004. Since 2016, he has served as a trustee of the

National Humanities Center The National Humanities Center (NHC) is an independent institute for advanced study in the humanities. The NHC operates as a privately incorporated nonprofit and is not part of any university or federal agency. The center was planned under the auspi ...

in Research Triangle Park, NC.

Works

*''Class, Religion, and Local Politics in Wilhelmine Germany'' (1980) *''The Peculiarities of German History'' (with G. Eley, 1984)
online
*''Populists and Patricians'' (1987) *''The German Bourgeoisie'' (co-edited with R. Evans, 1991) *''Marpingen: Apparitions of the Virgin Mary in Nineteenth-Century Germany'' (1994) *''The Long Nineteenth Century: A History of Germany, 1780–1918'' (1997) *''The Conquest of Nature: Water, Landscape, and the Making of Modern Germany'' (2006).

References

External links

* ttps://web.archive.org/web/20070812182158/http://www.harvardmagazine.com/on-line/070645.html "History of the Historian": Profile of Blackbourn in Harvard Magazine {{DEFAULTSORT:Blackbourn, David 1949 births Living people 21st-century American historians Academics of Birkbeck, University of London Academics of Queen Mary University of London Alumni of Christ's College, Cambridge Alumni of Jesus College, Cambridge American Marxist historians American male non-fiction writers British Marxist historians Fellows of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences German Historical Institute, Washington, DC Harvard University faculty Historians of Europe Historians of Germany Vanderbilt University faculty 21st-century American male writers Corresponding Fellows of the British Academy