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Gregory Claeys (born 18 August 1953) is Professor Emeritus of History at the University of London.


Career

He gained his PhD at the
University of Cambridge , mottoeng = Literal: From here, light and sacred draughts. Non literal: From this place, we gain enlightenment and precious knowledge. , established = , other_name = The Chancellor, Masters and Schola ...
, where he studied at Jesus College, and was a Junior Research Associate (1981–83) at King's College, working on the "Political Economy and Society" project. From 1982 to 1987 he taught British and American studies at Universität Hannover (now
Leibniz University Hannover Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz University Hannover (german: Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Universität), also known as the University of Hannover, is a public research university located in Hanover, Germany. Founded on 2 May 1831 as Higher Vocational Sc ...
) in
Hannover Hanover (; german: Hannover ; nds, Hannober) is the capital and largest city of the German States of Germany, state of Lower Saxony. Its 535,932 (2021) inhabitants make it the List of cities in Germany by population, 13th-largest city in Germa ...
, then
West Germany West Germany is the colloquial term used to indicate the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG; german: Bundesrepublik Deutschland , BRD) between its formation on 23 May 1949 and the German reunification through the accession of East Germany on 3 O ...
. Then he was Associate Professor of History at
Washington University in St. Louis Washington University in St. Louis (WashU or WUSTL) is a private research university with its main campus in St. Louis County, and Clayton, Missouri. Founded in 1853, the university is named after George Washington. Washington University is r ...
. From 1992 to 2020 he was Professor at Royal Holloway, University of London. His interests are the history of radicalism and socialism in 19th century Britain, utopianism 1700–2100,
Social Darwinism Social Darwinism refers to various theories and societal practices that purport to apply biological concepts of natural selection and survival of the fittest to sociology, economics and politics, and which were largely defined by scholars in We ...
and
Eugenics Eugenics ( ; ) is a fringe set of beliefs and practices that aim to improve the genetic quality of a human population. Historically, eugenicists have attempted to alter human gene pools by excluding people and groups judged to be inferior or ...
, and British intellectual history c. 1750 to the present. From the beginning of his career his research interests have focused chiefly upon the theory and practice of sociability. His main concern now is catastrophic environmental destruction, and how to avoid it. He has lectured widely, including (2011, 2018) at the
Edinburgh International Book Festival The Edinburgh International Book Festival (EIBF) is a book festival that takes place in the last three weeks of August every year in Charlotte Square in the centre of Scotland’s capital city, Edinburgh. Billed as ''The largest festival of its ...
and the Oxford Literary Festival, in 2016 at the
Cheltenham Literature Festival ''The Times'' and ''The Sunday Times'' Cheltenham Literature Festival, a large-scale international festival of literature held every year in October in the English spa town of Cheltenham, and part of Cheltenham Festivals: also responsible for t ...
, and in 2018–19 at similar events at Winchester, Chichester and Lewes. He gave a TEDx talk entitled "My Road to Utopia" (now retitled) at Linz in 2019, and another called "After Consumerism: Utopianism for a Dying Planet" at TEDxGoodenoughCollege in 2021. In 2016 he commenced, as editor, the series, "Palgrave Studies in Utopianism" (Palgrave-Macmillan).


Honors

In 1995 Claeys was given the Distinguished Scholars Award by the Communal Studies Association. In 2002 he was given the
Lyman Tower Sargent Lyman Tower Sargent (born 9 February 1940) is an American academic, professor emeritus of political science at the University of Missouri-St. Louis. Sargent's main academic interests are in utopian studies, political theory, American studies and b ...
Distinguished Scholar Award by the North American
Society for Utopian Studies The Society for Utopian Studies (founded 1975) is a North American interdisciplinary association devoted to the study of utopianism in all its forms, with a particular emphasis on literary and experimental utopias. Publications The Society publis ...
. In 2015 he was elected to the Academia Europaea/The European Academy. In 2016 he was elected Chair of the
Utopian Studies Society The Utopian Studies Society (founded 1988) is a European interdisciplinary association devoted to the study of utopianism in all its forms. The Society was established by a group of British scholars following an international conference on the subj ...
(Europe). In June 2018 he was awarded the Cantemir Prize by HRH Prince Radu of
Romania Romania ( ; ro, România ) is a country located at the crossroads of Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern, and Southeast Europe, Southeastern Europe. It borders Bulgaria to the south, Ukraine to the north, Hungary to the west, S ...
at a ceremony held at
Peles Castle Peles may refer to: * Keren Peles Keren Peles Toor ( he, קרן פלס טור; born March 11, 1979) is an Israeli singer-songwriter, poet and pianist. Music career Peles graduated from the Rimon School of Jazz and Contemporary Music. In 2005, s ...
,
Sinaia Sinaia () is a town and a mountain resort in Prahova County, Romania. It is situated in the historical region of Muntenia. The town was named after the Sinaia Monastery of 1695, around which it was built. The monastery, in turn, is named after t ...
. He is a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society and of the Royal Society of Arts. He has been visiting professor at the Australian National University, Canberra (1993), Keio University (Tokyo) (1995), the University of Hanoi (2008), and Peking University (2009, 2011).


Works

*(as editor) * *(as co-editor, with Liselotte Glage) * (as editor) * * *(as editor) *(as editor) *(as editor) *"The Origins of the Rights of Labor: Republicanism, Commerce, and the Construction of Modern Social Theory in Britain, 1796–1805", ''The Journal of Modern History'' Vol. 66, No. 2, June 1994 *(as editor) *(as editor) *(as editor) *(as co-editor, with Lyman Tower Sargent) (2nd edn, 2017) * (as co-editor, with Lyman Tower Sargent and Roland Schaer. ''Utopia. The Search for the Ideal Society in the West'' (New York: Oxford University Press, 2000). *(as editor) *(as editor) *(as editor) *(as editor) *(as co-editor, with Patrick Parrinder) * *(as editor)
''Imperial Sceptics: British Critics of Empire, 1850–1920''
Cambridge University Press, 2010. * (as editor) ''The Cambridge Companion to Utopian Literature''. Cambridge University Press, 2010. * ''Searching for Utopia: the History of an Idea''. Thames & Hudson, 2011 (German, Spanish, Portuguese, Japanese editions]. (2nd edn, 2020, with the title, ''Utopia: The History of an Idea'') * (as co-editor, with Gareth Stedman Jones) ''The Cambridge History of Nineteenth-Century Political Thought''. Cambridge University Press, 2011. Spanish and Chinese edns.
''Mill and Paternalism''
Cambridge University Press, 2013. * ''Dystopia: A Natural History''. Oxford University Press, 2016. Spanish translation, 2023. * ''Marx and Marxism''. Penguin Books, 2018; Nation Books 2018; Chinese, Greek, Italian, and Korean editions. * (as editor) ''The Cambridge Companion to Nineteenth-Century Thought'', Cambridge University Press, 2019. * ''Utopianism for a Dying Planet: Life After Consumerism''. Princeton University Press, 2022. * ''John Stuart Mill. A Very Short Introduction''. Oxford University Press, 2022.


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Claeys, Gregory 1953 births Living people British political philosophers British political writers Historians of political thought Academics of Royal Holloway, University of London Alumni of the University of Cambridge University of Hanover faculty Washington University in St. Louis faculty Utopian studies scholars