Modris Eksteins (; born December 13, 1943) is a Latvian Canadian historian with a special interest in German history and modern culture. Born in

Riga Riga ( ) is the capital, Primate city, primate, and List of cities and towns in Latvia, largest city of Latvia. Home to 591,882 inhabitants (as of 2025), the city accounts for a third of Latvia's total population. The population of Riga Planni ...

Latvia Latvia, officially the Republic of Latvia, is a country in the Baltic region of Northern Europe. It is one of the three Baltic states, along with Estonia to the north and Lithuania to the south. It borders Russia to the east and Belarus to t ...

, his works include ''Rites of Spring: The Great War and the Birth of the Modern Age'' (1989), which won the Wallace K. Ferguson Prize and the

Trillium Book Award The Trillium Book Award ( or ''Prix Trillium'') is an annual literary award presented to writers in Ontario, Canada. It is administered by Ontario Creates, a Crown agency (Ontario), Crown agency of the Government of Ontario, which is overseen by ...

. ''Walking Since Daybreak: A Story of Eastern Europe, World War II and the Heart of Our Century'' (1999), which juxtaposes the history of World War II and Latvia with personal memoir, and won the Pearson Writers' Trust Non-Fiction Prize, and ''Solar Dance: Genius, Forgery, and the Eclipse of Certainty'' (2012), which seeks to interpret the enormous posthumous success of

Vincent van Gogh Vincent Willem van Gogh (; 30 March 185329 July 1890) was a Dutch Post-Impressionist painter who is among the most famous and influential figures in the history of Western art. In just over a decade, he created approximately 2,100 artworks ...

and discusses his forger Otto Wacker, and won the 2013 British Columbia National Award for Canadian Non-Fiction. His work has been translated into German, French, Dutch, Spanish, Portuguese, Polish, Czech, Latvian, Japanese, Korean, and Chinese. After emigrating to Canada as a child, Eksteins, son of a Baptist minister, settled first in

Winnipeg Winnipeg () is the capital and largest city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Manitoba. It is centred on the confluence of the Red River of the North, Red and Assiniboine River, Assiniboine rivers. , Winnipeg h ...

and then in

Toronto Toronto ( , locally pronounced or ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, most populous city in Canada. It is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Ontario. With a p ...

, where he attended

Upper Canada College Upper Canada College (UCC) is an independent day and boarding school for boys in Toronto, Ontario, operating under the International Baccalaureate program. The college is widely described as Canada's most prestigious preparatory school, and ha ...

on scholarship and then the

University of Toronto The University of Toronto (UToronto or U of T) is a public university, public research university whose main campus is located on the grounds that surround Queen's Park (Toronto), Queen's Park in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It was founded by ...

( Trinity College) from which he graduated with a BA in 1965. Meanwhile, he attained a Diploma from

Heidelberg University Heidelberg University, officially the Ruprecht Karl University of Heidelberg (; ), is a public research university in Heidelberg, Baden-Württemberg, Germany. Founded in 1386 on instruction of Pope Urban VI, Heidelberg is Germany's oldest unive ...

in 1963. He then studied at

Oxford University The University of Oxford is a collegiate research university in Oxford, England. There is evidence of teaching as early as 1096, making it the oldest university in the English-speaking world and the second-oldest continuously operating u ...

( St. Antony's College) as a

Rhodes Scholar The Rhodes Scholarship is an international Postgraduate education, postgraduate award for students to study at the University of Oxford in Oxford, United Kingdom. The scholarship is open to people from all backgrounds around the world. Esta ...

, earning his

BPhil Bachelor of Philosophy (BPhil, BPh, or PhB; or or ) is the title of an academic degree in philosophy that usually involves considerable research, either through a thesis or supervised research projects. Unlike many other bachelor's degrees, the ...

in 1967, and

DPhil A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, DPhil; or ) is a terminal degree that usually denotes the highest level of academic achievement in a given discipline and is awarded following a course of graduate study and original research. The name of the deg ...

in 1970. He joined the Division of Humanities at

University of Toronto Scarborough The University of Toronto Scarborough (abbreviated as U of T Scarborough or UTSC) is a division of the University of Toronto and one of its three campuses, located in the Scarborough, Ontario, Scarborough district of Toronto, Ontario, Canada. ...

in 1970, retiring as professor emeritus of history in 2010.

Works

* ''Theodor Heuss und die Weimarer Republik'' (1969), Ernst Klett Verlag * ''The Limits of Reason: The German Democratic Press and the Collapse of Weimar Democracy'' (1975), Oxford University Press, – URN:oclc:record:1245530577 —

Internet Archive The Internet Archive is an American 501(c)(3) organization, non-profit organization founded in 1996 by Brewster Kahle that runs a digital library website, archive.org. It provides free access to collections of digitized media including web ...

* ''Nineteenth-Century Germany'' (1983), Gunter Narr Verlag, , co-editor * ''Rites of Spring: The Great War and the Birth of the Modern Age'' (1989), Houghton Mifflin, * ''Walking Since Daybreak: A Story of Eastern Europe, World War II and the Heart of Our Century'' (1999), Houghton Mifflin, * ''Diaghilev Was Here'' (2005), Diaghilev Festival Foundation, , co-author * ''Solar Dance: Genius, Forgery, and the Eclipse of Certainty'' (2012), Knopf Canada,

Notes

External links

Interview
on CBC '' Ideas'', November 29, 2012
Modris Eksteins
on ''

History Today ''History Today'' is a history magazine. Published monthly in London since January 1951, it presents authoritative history to as wide a public as possible. The magazine covers all periods and geographical regions and publishes articles of tradit ...

'' {{DEFAULTSORT:Eksteins, Modris 1943 births Living people 20th-century Canadian historians Canadian male non-fiction writers Latvian emigrants to Canada Latvian World War II refugees Historians of Germany Cultural historians Upper Canada College alumni Trinity College (Canada) alumni University of Toronto alumni Alumni of St Antony's College, Oxford Canadian Rhodes Scholars Academic staff of the University of Toronto 21st-century Canadian historians