Bernard Semmel (23 July 1928 – 18 August 2008) was an American historian specialising in British imperial history. Bernard Semmel, In Memoriam column of the November 2009 issue of ''Perspectives on History''

Life

Bernard Semmel was born in the

Bronx The Bronx () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Bronx County, in the state of New York. It is south of Westchester County; north and east of the New York City borough of Manhattan, across the Harlem River; and north of the New Y ...

, and attended New York City public schools. He received his B.A. from the College of the City of New York in 1947, and his Ph.D. from

Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...

in 1955. His first academic position was at

Park College Park University is a private university in Parkville, Missouri. It was founded in 1875. In the fall of 2017, Park had an enrollment of 11,457 students. History The school which was originally called Park College was founded in 1875 by John A. ...

in 1956; he visited the

London School of Economics , mottoeng = To understand the causes of things , established = , type = Public research university , endowment = £240.8 million (2021) , budget = £391.1 milli ...

in 1959-60, working with

Lionel Robbins Lionel Charles Robbins, Baron Robbins, (22 November 1898 – 15 May 1984) was a British economist, and prominent member of the economics department at the London School of Economics (LSE). He is known for his leadership at LSE, his proposed de ...

. He taught at the

State University of New York at Stony Brook Stony Brook University (SBU), officially the State University of New York at Stony Brook, is a public research university in Stony Brook, New York. Along with the University at Buffalo, it is one of the State University of New York system' ...

from 1960 until 1990, when he was appointed Distinguished Professor in the History department at the

CUNY Graduate Center The Graduate School and University Center of the City University of New York (CUNY Graduate Center) is a public research institution and post-graduate university in New York City. Serving as the principal doctorate-granting institution of the C ...

. He retired in 1996.

Works

*''Imperialism and Social Reform: English Social-Imperial Thought, 1895–1914'' (1960). *''Jamaican Blood and Victorian Conscience: The Governor Eyre Controversy'' (1962). Alternative titles: "The Governor Eyre Controversy" (UK edition); "Democracy vs. Empire" (Anchor Doubleday paperback edition). *''Occasional Papers of T. R. Malthus'' (edited with an introduction, 1963). *''The Rise of Free Trade Imperialism: Classical Political Economy, the Empire of Free Trade and Imperialism, 1750–1850'' (1970). *

Élie Halévy Élie Halévy (6 September 1870 – 21 August 1937) was a French philosopher and historian who wrote studies of the British utilitarians, the book of essays '' Era of Tyrannies'', and a history of Britain from 1815 to 1914 that influenced Britis ...

, ''The Birth of Methodism'' (translated and with an introduction by Semmel, 1971). *''The Methodist Revolution'' (1973). *''Marxism and the Science of War'' (1981). *''John Stuart Mill and the Pursuit of Virtue'' (1984). *''Liberalism and Naval Strategy: Ideology, Interest and Sea Power during the Pax Britannica'' (1986). *''The Liberal Ideal and the Demons of Empire: Theories of Imperialism from Adam Smith to Lenin'' (1993). *''George Eliot and the Politics of National Inheritance'' (1994).

Notes

{{DEFAULTSORT:Semmel, Bernard 1928 births 2008 deaths 20th-century American historians American male non-fiction writers 20th-century American male writers