Jonathan Steinberg (8 March 1934 – 4 March 2021) was the Walter H. Annenberg Professor of European History Emeritus and Chair of the Department of History at the

University of Pennsylvania The University of Pennsylvania (also known as Penn or UPenn) is a private research university in Philadelphia. It is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and is ranked among the highest-regarded universitie ...

Career

Steinberg received his undergraduate degree from

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 high ...

and his PhD from

Cambridge University The University of Cambridge is a Public university, public collegiate university, collegiate research university in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1209 and granted a royal charter by Henry III of England, Henry III in 1231, Cambridge is the world' ...

. After serving for 33 years at Cambridge University as University Lecturer and then

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in European History, Fellow of Trinity Hall, and Vice-Master, he taught at the University of Pennsylvania in

Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania#Municipalities, largest city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the List of United States cities by population, sixth-largest city i ...

. He was an emeritus fellow of Trinity Hall, Cambridge, and served as an External Examiner in Part II of the Cambridge History Tripos for 2009 to 2011. Steinberg's teaching covered modern Europe since 1789 with specialization in the German and

Austrian Empire The Austrian Empire (german: link=no, Kaiserthum Oesterreich, modern spelling , ) was a Central-Eastern European multinational great power from 1804 to 1867, created by proclamation out of the realms of the Habsburgs. During its existence ...

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, Fascist Italy and modern

Jewish history Jewish history is the history of the Jews, and their nation, religion, and culture, as it developed and interacted with other peoples, religions, and cultures. Although Judaism as a religion first appears in Greek records during the Hellenisti ...

. He also taught graduate seminars in historical thought and method and taught economic thought from Adam Smith to

Karl Marx Karl Heinrich Marx (; 5 May 1818 – 14 March 1883) was a German philosopher, economist, historian, sociologist, political theorist, journalist, critic of political economy, and socialist revolutionary. His best-known titles are the 1848 ...

Publications

He is the author of ''Yesterday’s Deterrent: Tirpitz and the Birth of the German Battle Fleet'', ''Why Switzerland?, All or Nothing: The Axis and the Holocaust'' and ''Die Deutsche Bank und ihre Goldtransaktionen im Zweiten Weltkrieg'' (also published in English). His reviews have appeared in '' The London Review of Books'', ''

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'', ''

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'', and ''

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''. In 2003 he completed ''European History and European Lives, 1715 to 1914'', a 36-part series of biographies produced by

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. Dr. Steinberg has also written many radio and TV documentaries, including

BBC Radio Four BBC Radio 4 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC that replaced the BBC Home Service in 1967. It broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes, including news, drama, comedy, science and history from the BBC's ...

's salute to the

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, ''Secure in Their Persons''. He was co-editor of ''

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'', Cambridge University Press, from 1990 to 2000. His biography of Otto Von Bismarck entitled ''Bismarck: A Life'' was published by

Oxford University Press Oxford University Press (OUP) is the university press of the University of Oxford. It is the largest university press in the world, and its printing history dates back to the 1480s. Having been officially granted the legal right to print books ...

in 2011 and was short-listed for the BBC Samuel Johnson Prize for Non-Fiction in 2011 and short-listed for the

Duff Cooper Prize The Duff Cooper Prize is a literary prize awarded annually for the best work of history, biography, political science or occasionally poetry, published in English or French. The prize was established in honour of Duff Cooper, a British diplomat, Ca ...

in 2012. A German edition ''Bismarck. Magier der Macht'' was published by Propylaen Verlag, a subsidiary of Ullstein. In October 2012, a Danish edition published by Sohn and a Romanian edition published by Eikon appeared at the same time. A Japanese edition in two volumes appeared in 2012. A Brazilian edition (''Bismarck - Uma Vida'') appeared in 2015. A Russian and a Chinese edition are forthcoming. He has just completed a third and revised edition of ''Why Switzerland?'' which has been submitted to Cambridge University Press. The biography of Bismarck was well received by scholars. Jonathan Sperber said it is, "Elegantly and forcefully written, with a thorough command of the scholarship on all the relevant aspects of nineteenth-century history and an equally thorough acquaintance with the printed sources." Robert M. Citino wrote, "Happily, Steinberg's book triumphs....no other biography reflects such a careful reading of the secondary literature. By now, mastery of the enormous Bismarck literature can only be the product of a lifetime of reading and reflection. The result is synthesis in the classic style." Abigail Green wrote, "Steinberg’s new biography of Bismarck has been widely acclaimed, and rightly so....As a deeply researched but accessible guide to the life of one of nineteenth-century Europe’s most compelling and significant political figures, it stands head and shoulders above other Bismarck biographies."

Non-academic appointments

Steinberg served as an expert witness in the Commonwealth of Australia War Crimes prosecution. He was also appointed to the Historical Commission of the Deutsche Bank AG,

Frankfurt am Main Frankfurt, officially Frankfurt am Main (; Hessian: , "Frank ford on the Main"), is the most populous city in the German state of Hesse. Its 791,000 inhabitants as of 2022 make it the fifth-most populous city in Germany. Located on its na ...

to examine bank activity and gold transactions during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

. He was a member of the Board of Trustees of

Franklin University Switzerland Franklin University Switzerland is a private university in Lugano, Switzerland. Founded in 1969, Franklin is one of the oldest American institutions of higher education in Europe and the first to be established in Switzerland. Franklin offers Bac ...

Lugano Lugano (, , ; lmo, label=Ticinese dialect, Ticinese, Lugan ) is a city and municipality in Switzerland, part of the Lugano District in the canton of Ticino. It is the largest city of both Ticino and the Italian-speaking southern Switzerland. Luga ...

, Switzerland, and the Presidential Advisory Commission on Holocaust Assets.

References

External links

Jonathan Steinberg profile page

Department of History.
Henry Kissinger review
of ''Bismarck: A Life'' in the '' New York Times Book Review''
''Professor Jonathan Steinberg 1934-2021''
by

Trinity Hall, Cambridge Trinity Hall (formally The College or Hall of the Holy Trinity in the University of Cambridge) is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. It is the fifth-oldest surviving college of the university, having been founded in 1350 by ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Steinberg, Jonathan 2021 deaths 1934 births Harvard University alumni American Jews 20th-century American historians American male non-fiction writers 21st-century American historians 21st-century American male writers University of Pennsylvania faculty University of Pennsylvania historian Walter H. Annenberg Professor Alumni of the University of Cambridge Fellows of Trinity Hall, Cambridge 20th-century American male writers