Mike Dash is a

Welsh Welsh may refer to: Related to Wales * Welsh, referring or related to Wales * Welsh language, a Brittonic Celtic language spoken in Wales * Welsh people People * Welsh (surname) * Sometimes used as a synonym for the ancient Britons (Celtic peopl ...

writer, historian, and researcher. He has written books and articles about dramatic episodes in history.

Biography

Dash was born in

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

. He attended

Peterhouse Peterhouse is the oldest constituent college of the University of Cambridge in England, founded in 1284 by Hugh de Balsham, Bishop of Ely. Today, Peterhouse has 254 undergraduates, 116 full-time graduate students and 54 fellows. It is quite o ...

, a college 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 ...

particularly noted for teaching

history History (derived ) is the systematic study and the documentation of the human activity. The time period of event before the invention of writing systems is considered prehistory. "History" is an umbrella term comprising past events as well ...

, and completed postgraduate work at

King's College London King's College London (informally King's or KCL) is a public research university located in London, England. King's was established by royal charter in 1829 under the patronage of King George IV and the Duke of Wellington. In 1836, King's ...

, where he obtained a Ph.D. Dash authored a series of books covering incidents in the history of the

Dutch East India Company The United East India Company ( nl, Verenigde Oostindische Compagnie, the VOC) was a chartered company established on the 20th March 1602 by the States General of the Netherlands amalgamating existing companies into the first joint-stock ...

, the

Netherlands ) , anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau") , image_map = , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands , established_title = Before independence , established_date = Spanish Netherl ...

, India under British rule, and

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * '' ...

during the

Progressive Era The Progressive Era (late 1890s – late 1910s) was a period of widespread social activism and political reform across the United States focused on defeating corruption, monopoly, waste and inefficiency. The main themes ended during Am ...

. Each focuses on a single event or series of events, among them the wreck of the East Indiaman ''Batavia'', the Dutch

tulip mania Tulip mania ( nl, tulpenmanie) was a period during the Dutch Golden Age when contract prices for some bulbs of the recently introduced and fashionable tulip reached extraordinarily high levels. The major acceleration started in 1634 and then d ...

of 1634–1637, and the early years of the

American Mafia The American Mafia, commonly referred to in North America as the Italian American Mafia, the Mafia, or the Mob, is a highly organized Italian American criminal society and organized crime group. The organization is often referred to by its memb ...

. He has written for a history

blog A blog (a Clipping (morphology), truncation of "weblog") is a discussion or informational website published on the World Wide Web consisting of discrete, often informal diary-style text entries (posts). Posts are typically displayed in Reverse ...

, "Past Imperfect", published by

Smithsonian Magazine ''Smithsonian'' is the official journal published by the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C. The first issue was published in 1970. History The history of ''Smithsonian'' began when Edward K. Thompson, the retired editor of ''Life'' mag ...

. In 2014, his blog post on the

Lykov family The Lykov family (russian: Лыков, translit=Lykov) is a Russian family of Old Believers. The family of six spent 42 years in partial isolation from human society in an otherwise uninhabited upland of Abakan Range, in Tashtypsky District of ...

, "Lost in the Taiga," was named one of "Nearly 100 Fantastic Pieces of Journalism" by ''

The Atlantic ''The Atlantic'' is an American magazine and multi-platform publisher. It features articles in the fields of politics, foreign affairs, business and the economy, culture and the arts, technology, and science. It was founded in 1857 in Boston, ...

''. Dash's 2009 book, ''The First Family'', is a new history of

Giuseppe Morello Giuseppe "the Clutch Hand" Morello (; May 2, 1867 – August 15, 1930), also known as "The Old Fox", was the first boss of the Morello crime family and later top adviser to Giuseppe "Joe the Boss" Masseria. He was known as ''Piddu'' ( Sicilian ...

and the establishment of

the Mafia "Mafia" is an informal term that is used to describe criminal organizations that bear a strong similarity to the original “Mafia”, the Sicilian Mafia and Italian Mafia. The central activity of such an organization would be the arbitration of d ...

in the

United States 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., ...

. He began writing for the Smithsonian in July 2011 when the Institution acquired his history site, A Blast from the Past, shortly after the

History News Network History News Network (HNN) at George Washington University is a platform for historians writing about current events. History History News Network (HNN) is a non-profit corporation registered in Washington DC. HNN was founded by Richard Shenkman ...

awarded it the 2010 Cliopatria prize for history blogging. In addition to blogging, Dash regularly contributes to

r/AskHistorians r/AskHistorians is a subreddit on Reddit where users may ask questions or start discussions about history. It is one of the internet's largest history forums. The subreddit was founded in 2011 and has remained active ever since, with over 1 ...

, and since January 2019 he has republished material written for AskHistorians on his personal blog's "Ask Mike" page.

Bibliography

*''The Limit: Engineering at the Boundaries of Science''. BBC, 1995. . *''Borderlands: The Ultimate Exploration of the Unknown''. Dell, 1997. . *''Tulipomania: The Story of the World's Most Coveted Flower & the Extraordinary Passions It Aroused''. Crown, 2000. . *''

Batavia's Graveyard ''Batavia's Graveyard: The True Story of the Mad Heretic Who Led History's Bloodiest Mutiny'' is a book released in 2001 by Welsh author Mike Dash about the Dutch East India Company ship , shipwrecked in 1629 on a small atoll of the Houtman Abr ...

: The True Story of the Mad Heretic Who Led History's Bloodiest Mutiny''.

Weidenfeld & Nicolson Weidenfeld & Nicolson Ltd (established 1949), often shortened to W&N or Weidenfeld, is a British publisher of fiction and reference books. It has been a division of the French-owned Orion Publishing Group since 1991. History George Weidenfeld a ...

, 2002. . *''Thug: The True Story of India's Murderous Cult''. Granta Books, 2005. . *''Satan's Circus: Murder, Vice, Police Corruption, and New York's Trial of the Century''. Crown Publishing, 2007. . *''The First Family: Terror, Extortion and the Birth of the American Mafia''.

Simon & Schuster Simon & Schuster () is an American publishing company and a subsidiary of Paramount Global. It was founded in New York City on January 2, 1924 by Richard L. Simon and M. Lincoln Schuster. As of 2016, Simon & Schuster was the third largest publi ...

, 2009. .

Notes

External links

*
Articles
in '' Smithsonian'' magazine {{DEFAULTSORT:Dash, Mike Fortean writers Alumni of Peterhouse, Cambridge Alumni of King's College London 1963 births Living people Welsh male journalists Historians of the Dutch Republic

Biography

Bibliography

See also

Notes

External links