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Jonathan Israel

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Jonathan Irvine Israel (born 26 January 1946, London) is a British writer on Dutch history, the Age of Enlightenment and European Jewry. Israel was appointed the Modern European History Professor in the School of Historical Studies at the Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton, New Jersey, U.S. in January 2001.[1] He was previously Professor of Dutch History and Institutions at the University of London. He is one of the world's leading historians of the Enlightenment.

Life

Israel's career until 2001 unfolded in UK academia. He did his undergraduate studies at Queens' College, Cambridge and his graduate work at University of Oxford and the El Colegio de México, Mexico City, receiving his D.Phil. from Oxford in 1972. He was named Sir James Knott Research Fellow at the University of Newcastle upon Tyne in 1970, and in 1972 he moved to the University of Hull where he was first an assistant lecturer then a lecturer in Early Modern Europe. In 1974 he became a lecturer in Early Modern European History at University College London, progressing to become a reader in Modern History in 1981, then to become Professor of Dutch History and Institutions in 1984. In January 2001, Israel became Modern European History Professor in the School of Historical Studies at the Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton, USA.[1]

Viewpoints

Israel has made a detailed case that the philosopher Baruch Spinoza "and Spinozism were in fact the intellectual backbone of the European Radical Enlightenment everywhere, not only in the Netherlands, Germany, France, Italy, and Scandinavia but also Britain and Ireland", and that the Radical Enlightenment, leaning towards religious skepticism and republican government, leads on to the modern liberal-democratic state.[2][3]

Honors and awards

He was made a Fellow of the British Academy in 1992, Corresponding Fellow of the Koninklijke Nederlandse Akademie van Wetenschappen (Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences) in 1994, won the American Historical Association’s Leo Gershoy Prize in 2001, and was made Knight of the Order of the Netherlands Lion in 2004. In 2008, he won the Dr A.H. Heineken Prize prize for history, medicine, environmental studies and cognitive science.[4]

In 2010 he was awarded the Benjamin Franklin Medal by the Royal Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce (RSA) for his outstanding contribution to Enlightenment scholarship.[5]

Works

  • Race, Class and Politics in Colonial Mexico, 1610–70. Oxford Historical Monographs. 1975. ISBN 0-19-821860-5 HB.
  • The Dutch Republic and the Hispanic World, 1606–61. 1982. ISBN 0-19-826534-4 HB; 0-19-821998-9 PB.
  • European Jewry in the Age of Mercantilism, 1550–1750. 1985. ISBN 0-19-821928-8 HB; 1-874774-42-0 PB.
  • Dutch Primacy in World Trade, 1585–1740. 1989. ISBN 0-19-821139-2 PB.
  • Empires and Entrepots: The Dutch, the Spanish Monarchy and the Jews, 1585–1713. 1990. ISBN 1-85285-022-1 HB.
  • The Anglo-Dutch Moment: Essays on the Glorious Revolution and Its World Impact. 1991. (editor). ISBN 0-521-39075-3 HB; 0-521-54406-8 PB.
  • From Persecution to Toleration: Glorious Revolution and Religion in England. 1991. (co-editor) ISBN 0-19-820196-6 HB.
  • The Dutch Republic: Its Rise, Greatness and Fall, 1477–1806. Oxford History of Early Modern Europe. 1995. ISBN 0-19-873072-1 HB; 0-198-20734-4 PB. Documents the golden age of the United Provinces of the Netherlands and its historical context.
  • Conflicts of Empires: Spain, the Low Countries and the Struggle for World Supremacy, 1585–1713. 1997. ISBN 1-85285-161-9 HB.
  • Radical Enlightenment: Philosophy and the Making of Modernity, 1650–1750. 2001. ISBN 0-19-820608-9 HB; 0-199-25456-7 PB. Emphasizes the role of 17th century Holland, and Spinoza in particular, in the Enlightenment.
  • Diasporas Within a Diaspora: Jews, Crypto-Jews and the World of Maritime Empires (1540–1740). Brill's Series in Jewish Studies. 2002. ISBN 90-04-12765-8 HB.
  • Dutch Jewry: Its History and Secular Culture (1500–2000). Brill's Series in Jewish Studies. 2002. (co-editor) ISBN 90-04-12436-5 HB.
  • Enlightenment Contested: Philosophy, Modernity, and the Emancipation of Man, 1670–1752. 2006. ISBN 0-19-927922-5 HB.[6][7]
  • A Revolution of the Mind: Radical Enlightenment and the Intellectual Origins of Modern Democracy. 2009. ISBN 978-0-691-14200-5 HB.
  • Democratic Enlightenment: Philosophy, Revolution, and Human Rights 1750–1790. 2011. ISBN 978-0-199-54820-0 HB.[8]
  • Revolutionary Ideas: An Intellectual History of the French Revolution from The Rights of Man to Robespierre. 2014. ISBN 978-0-691-15172-4 HB.

(Radical Enlightenment (2001), Enlightenment Contested (2006), and Democratic Enlightenment (2011) constitute a monumental trilogy on the history of the Radical Enlightenment and the intellectual origins of modern democracy. A Revolution of the Mind (2009) is a shorter work on the same theme.)

This list above is complete as of November 2013.

See also

References

  1. ^ a b "Jonathan Israel Appointed to Faculty of Institute for Advanced Study". Princeton Institute for Advanced Study. 17 January 2001. Retrieved 21 September 2011.
  2. ^ Israel, J. (2001). Radical Enlightenment: Philosophy and the Making of Modernity, 1650-1750. Oxford, England: Oxford University Press. pp. vi. ISBN 0-19-820608-9.
  3. ^ Chamberlain, Lesley (8 December 2006). "When freedom fought faith". The Independent. Retrieved 21 September 2011.
  4. ^ "Jonathan Israel (biographical details)". Princeton Institute for Advanced Study. Retrieved 21 September 2011.
  5. ^ "Jonathan Israel Awarded 2010 Benjamin Franklin Medal". Princeton Institute for Advanced Study. 24 November 2010. Retrieved 21 September 2011.
  6. ^ "Review: Banishing the dark". The Economist. 30 November 2006. Retrieved 21 September 2011.
  7. ^ Moyn, Samuel (12 May 2010). "Review: Mind the Enlightenment". The Nation. Retrieved 21 September 2011.
  8. ^ Bell, David A. (8 February 2012). "Review: Where Do We Come From?". The New Republic. Retrieved 19 February 2012.

External links

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