Peter Sugar (January 1919 – December 5, 1999) was an American historian, known for his expertise in the history of

East Central Europe East Central Europe is the region between Germanic, West Slavic, and Hungarian-speaking Europe and the East Slavic countries of Belarus, Russia, and Ukraine. Those lands are described as situated "between two": "between two worlds, between ...

, and a frequent speaker at international conferences during the

Yugoslav wars The Yugoslav Wars were a series of separate but related Naimark (2003), p. xvii. ethnic conflicts, wars of independence, and insurgencies that took place in the SFR Yugoslavia from 1991 to 2001. The conflicts both led up to and resulted from ...

of the 1990s. Sugar was a recipient of a lifetime achievement Award for Distinguished Contributions to Slavic Studies from the

American Association for the Advancement of Slavic Studies The Association for Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies (ASEEES) is a scholarly society dedicated to the advancement of knowledge about the former Soviet Union (including Eurasia) and Eastern and Central Europe. The ASEEES supports teach ...

Early life and education

Sugar was born in

Budapest Budapest (, ; ) is the capital and most populous city of Hungary. It is the ninth-largest city in the European Union by population within city limits and the second-largest city on the Danube river; the city has an estimated population o ...

Hungary Hungary ( hu, Magyarország ) is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning of the Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the south, Cr ...

, and earned a baccalaureate degree from Budapest's Lutheran Gymnasium. He played

ice hockey Ice hockey (or simply hockey) is a team sport played on ice skates, usually on an ice skating rink with lines and markings specific to the sport. It belongs to a family of sports called hockey. In ice hockey, two opposing teams use ice ...

for Hungary's national team, and was a member of the Hungarian

cavalry Historically, cavalry (from the French word ''cavalerie'', itself derived from "cheval" meaning "horse") are soldiers or warriors who fight mounted on horseback. Cavalry were the most mobile of the combat arms, operating as light cavalry in ...

. He relocated to

Istanbul ) , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = 34000 to 34990 , area_code = +90 212 (European side) +90 216 (Asian side) , registration_plate = 34 , blank_name_sec2 = GeoTLD , blank_i ...

prior to the Second World War, where he learned the

Turkish language Turkish ( , ), also referred to as Turkish of Turkey (''Türkiye Türkçesi''), is the most widely spoken of the Turkic languages, with around 80 to 90 million speakers. It is the national language of Turkey and Northern Cyprus. Significant sma ...

and began to specialize in Southeast European studies. During the war, still in Istanbul, he worked for the

United States Army The United States Army (USA) is the land service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army of the United States in the U.S. Constitution.Article II, section 2, ...

in the field of

counterintelligence Counterintelligence is an activity aimed at protecting an agency's intelligence program from an opposition's intelligence service. It includes gathering information and conducting activities to prevent espionage, sabotage, assassinations or ...

. Sugar's service to the U.S. army made him eligible to emigrate to the United States in 1946. He studied history at the

City College of New York The City College of the City University of New York (also known as the City College of New York, or simply City College or CCNY) is a public university within the City University of New York (CUNY) system in New York City. Founded in 1847, Cit ...

, obtaining an additional undergraduate degree in 1954. He enrolled in a doctoral program at

Princeton University Princeton University is a private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and one of the ...

, receiving his PhD in history and Near Eastern studies in 1959. His dissertation topic was "The Industrialization of Bosnia-Hercegovina, 1878-1918: The Development of a Backward Region," and was supervised by Cyril E. Black and

Jerome Blum Lord and Peasant in Russia from the Ninth to the Nineteenth Century is a political-social-economic history of Russia written by historian Jerome Blum and published by Princeton University Press in 1961. The work covers the period from Varang ...

.''ProQuest Dissertations & Theses Global'' database. His dissertation was later revised and published by University of Washington Press in 1963.

Academic career

Sugar began a long-term career at the

University of Washington The University of Washington (UW, simply Washington, or informally U-Dub) is a public research university in Seattle, Washington. Founded in 1861, Washington is one of the oldest universities on the West Coast; it was established in Seatt ...

in 1959, teaching European and Ottoman history. In 1987, he was chosen as Instructor of the Year. He retired on March 9, 1989. The mayor of Seattle,

Charles Royer Charles T. Royer (born August 22, 1939) is an American news reporter and politician who served as the 48th mayor of Seattle, Washington from 1978 to 1990. After serving as mayor of Seattle, Royer became the director of the Harvard Institute of P ...

, declared that date to be "Peter Sugar Day" to honor Sugar's contributions over three decades as a professor at the university.

Selected works

* (Bulgarian edition – 2003, )

References

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Sugar, Peter Historians of Europe Hungarian ice hockey players City College of New York alumni Princeton University alumni University of Washington faculty Writers from Budapest Hungarian emigrants to the United States 1919 births 1999 deaths 20th-century American historians American male non-fiction writers 20th-century American male writers

Early life and education

Academic career

Selected works

See also

References