Christopher Guy Thorne

DLitt Doctor of Letters (D.Litt., Litt.D., Latin: ' or ') is a terminal degree in the humanities that, depending on the country, is a higher doctorate after the Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) degree or equivalent to a higher doctorate, such as the Doctor ...

MA FBA (17 May 1934 – 20 April 1992) was a British historian and a Professor of International Relations at the

University of Sussex , mottoeng = Be Still and Know , established = , type = Public research university , endowment = £14.4 million (2020) , budget = £319.6 million (2019–20) , chancellor = Sanjeev Bhaskar , vice_chancellor = Sasha Roseneil , ...

. He specialised in studying the

Pacific War The Pacific War, sometimes called the Asia–Pacific War, was the theater of World War II that was fought in Asia, the Pacific Ocean, the Indian Ocean, and Oceania. It was geographically the largest theater of the war, including the vas ...

. He was a resident fellow at the

Netherlands Institute for Advanced Study The Netherlands Institute for Advanced Study in the Humanities and Social Sciences (NIAS) in Amsterdam, Netherlands, is an independent research institute in the field of the humanities and social and behavioural sciences founded in 1970. The instit ...

and a fellow of the

British Academy The British Academy is the United Kingdom's national academy for the humanities and the social sciences. It was established in 1902 and received its royal charter in the same year. It is now a fellowship of more than 1,000 leading scholars s ...

. In 1986 he delivered the British Academy's Sarah Tryphena Phillips Lecture in American Literature and History. Thorne achieved some fame for his new approaches to international history, emphasising the importance of transnational research and perspectives. He was the first non-American to win the

Bancroft Prize The Bancroft Prize is awarded each year by the trustees of Columbia University for books about diplomacy or the history of the Americas. It was established in 1948, with a bequest from Frederic Bancroft, in his memory and that of his brother, ...

for American history, awarded in 1979 for his book ''Allies of a Kind: The United States, Britain and the War Against Japan, 1941–1945''. He was educated at the

Royal Grammar School, Guildford The Royal Grammar School, Guildford (originally 'The Free School'), also known as the RGS, is a selective independent day school for boys in Guildford, Surrey in England. The school dates its founding to the death of Robert Beckingham in 1509 who ...

, and

St. Edmund Hall, Oxford St Edmund Hall (sometimes known as The Hall or informally as Teddy Hall) is a Colleges of the University of Oxford, constituent college of the University of Oxford. The college claims to be "the oldest surviving academic society to house and ed ...

(B.A. 1958, M.A. 1962, D.Litt. 1980, Hon. Fellow 1989).

Bibliography

* ''The Approach of War, 1938–1939'', Humanity Press (1967) * ''The Limits of Foreign Policy: The West, The League, and the Far Eastern Crisis of 1931–1933'', Palgrave Macmillan (1973) * ''Allies of a Kind: the United States, Britain, and the War against Japan, 1941–1945'', Oxford University Press (1978) * ''The Issue of War: States, Societies, and the Far Eastern Conflict of 1941–1945'', Oxford University Press (1985) * ''Border Crossings: Studies in International History'', Blackwell (1988) * ''Between the Seas: A Quiet Walk through Crete'', Sinclair-Stevenson (1994)

References

1934 births 1992 deaths Academics of the University of Sussex 20th-century British historians Fellows of the British Academy Bancroft Prize winners People educated at Royal Grammar School, Guildford Alumni of St Edmund Hall, Oxford {{UK-historian-stub