Robert John Weston Evans

Robert Evans
Born	Robert John Weston Evans
Education	Dean Close School
Alma mater	Jesus College, Cambridge
Occupation	Historian
Known for	Works on the post-medieval history of Central and Eastern Europe
Title	Regius Professor of Modern History
Term	1997 - 2010
Predecessor	John Huxtable Elliott
Successor	Lyndal Roper

Professor Robert John Weston Evans FLSW FBA is a historian, whose speciality is the post-medieval history of Central and Eastern Europe. He was educated at Dean Close School, Cheltenham and Jesus College, Cambridge. Evans is Regius Professor of Modern History in the University of Oxford, and a Fellow of Oriel College, Oxford. He works on the post-medieval history of Central and Eastern Europe, especially concerning that of the Habsburg lands from 1526-1918.

He has a particular interest in the role of language in historical development. His main current research is on a history of Hungary, from 1740-1945. He also studies the history of Wales and is the President of Cymdeithas Dafydd ap Gwilym, the Oxford University Welsh language society. He is a Founding Fellow of the Learned Society of Wales and is a Member of its inaugural Council.

Publications

• Rudolf II and his World. A Study in Intellectual History, 1576-1612 (Oxford, 1973)
• The Making of the Habsburg Monarchy, 1550-1700. An Interpretation (Oxford, 1979)
• The Coming of the First World War, ed. Robert Evans and Hartmut Pogge von Strandmann (Oxford, 1988)
• 'Culture and Anarchy in the Empire, 1540-1680', Central European History, 18: 1 (Mar. 1985), pp. 14–30.
• 'The Habsburgs and the Hungarian Problem, 1790-1848', Transactions of the Royal Historical Society, 5th ser., vol. 39 (1989), pp. 41–62.
• 'Maria Theresa and Hungary', and 'Joseph II and Nationality in the Habsburg Lands', in Enlightened Absolutism: Reform and Reformers in Later Eighteenth-Century Europe, ed. H.M. Scott (Houndmills, 1991), pp. 189–207 and 209-19.
• Crown, Church and Estates. Central European Politics in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries, ed. Robert Evans and T.V. Thomas (London, 1991)
• 'Essay and Reflection: Frontiers and national identities in Central Europe', The International History Review, 14: 3 (Aug. 1992), pp. 480–502.
• The language of history and the history of language: an inaugural lecture delivered before the University of Oxford on 11 May 1998 (Oxford, 1998) 34pp.
• 'Language and Society in the Nineteenth Century: Some Central European Comparisons', in Language and Community in the Nineteenth Century, ed. Geraint H. Jenkins (Cardiff, 1999).
• 'Liberalism, Nationalism, and the Coming of the Revolution', and '1848 in the Habsburg Monarchy', in The Revolutions in Europe, 1848-9: From Reform to Reaction, ed. Robert Evans and H. Pogge von Strandmann (Oxford, 2000), pp. 9–26, 181-206.
• Wales in European Context. Some Historical Reflections (Aberystwyth, 2001), 31pp.
• Great Britain and East-Central Europe, 1908-48. A Study in Perceptions (London, 2002), 31pp.
• '1848 in Mitteleuropa: Ereignis und Erinnerung', in 1848: Ereignis und Erinnerung in den politischen Kulturen Mitteleuropas, ed. Barbara Haider and Hans Peter Hye (Vienna, 2003), pp. 31–55.
• 'Kossuth and Štúr: Two national heros', in Lajos Kossuth Sent Word..., ed. László Péter, Martyn Rady and Peter Sherwood (London, 2003), pp. 119–34.
• Great Britain and Central Europe, 1867-1914, ed. Robert Evans, Dusan Kovac and Edita Ivanickova (Bratislava, 2003)
• 'Language and State-building: The Case of the Habsburg Monarchy', Austrian History Yearbook, vol. xxxv (2004), pp. 1–24.
• 'The Making of October Fifteenth: C.A. Macartney and his Correspondents', in British-Hungarian Relations since 1848, ed. Laszlo Peter and Martyn Rady (London, 2004), pp. 259–70.
• '"The Manuscripts": The culture of politics and forgery in Central Europe', in A Rattleskull Genius: The many faces of Iolo Morganwg, ed. Geraint H. Jenkins (Cardiff, 2005), pp. 51–68.
• Curiosity and Wonder from the Renaissance to the Enlightenment, ed. Robert Evans and Alexander Marr (Aldershot, 2006)
• Austria, Hungary and the Habsburgs. Essays on Central Europe, c.1683-1867 (Oxford, 2006)
• 'Europa in der britischen Historiographie', in Nationale Geschichtskulturen. Bilanz, Ausstrahlung, Europabezogenheit (Mainz/Stuttgart, 2006), pp. 77–93.
• 'Coming to Terms with the Habsburgs: Reflections on the historiography of Central Europe', in Does Central Europe Still Exist? History, economy, identity, ed. Thomas Row (Vienna, 2006), pp. 11–24.
• Czechoslovakia in a Nationalist and Fascist Europe 1918-1948. Proceedings of the British Academy no. 140. Ed. Robert Evans and Mark Cornwall (Oxford, 2007)
• 'The Successor States', in Twisted Paths: Europe 1914-1945, ed. Robert Gerwarth (Oxford, 2007), pp. 210–36.
• 'The Politics of Language and the Languages of Politics: Latin and the vernaculars in eighteenth-century Hungary', in Cultures of Power in Europe during the Long Eighteenth Century, ed. Hamish Scott and Brendan Simms (Cambridge, 2007), pp. 200–24.
• 'Communicating Empire: The Habsburgs and their critics, 1700-1919 (The Prothero Lecture)', Proceedings of the Royal Historical Society, 19 (2009), pp. 117–38.
• 'The Creighton Century: British historians and Europe', Historical Research, 82, no. 216 (2009), pp. 320–39.
• 'Afterword', in Re-Contextualising East Central European History: Nation, culture and minority groups, ed. Robert Pyrah and Marius Turda (Leeds, 2010), pp. 155–8.
• Wales and the Wider World: Welsh history in an international context, ed. T.M. Charles-Edwards and Robert Evans (Donington, 2010)
• The Uses of the Middle Ages in Modern European States, ed. Robert Evans and Guy P. Marchal (Basingstoke, 2010)
• The Holy Roman Empire 1495-1806, ed. Robert Evans, Michael Schaich, and Peter H. Wilson (Oxford, 2011)
• 'Confession and Nation in Early Modern Central Europe', Central Europe, 9, no. 1 (May, 2011), pp. 2-17.
• 'Official Languages: A brief prehistory', in Language and History, Linguistics and Historiography, ed. Nils Langer, Steffan Davies, and Wim Vandenbussche (Oxford, 2011), pp. 129-46.

External links

• Robert John Evans at Oxford University's website