Henry Kamen
Encyclopedia
Henry A. Kamen is a British
historian
born in Rangoon on Oct 4. 1936. He studied at the University of Oxford
, earning his doctorate at St. Antony's College. He subsequently taught at the University of Warwick
and various universities in Spain
. In 1970, he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society
. In 1984 he was appointed Herbert F. Johnson Professor at the Institute for Research in the Humanities, University of Wisconsin - Madison. He was a Professor
of the Higher Council for Scientific Research (CSIC
) in Barcelona
from 1993 until his retirement in 2002. Since then he has continued lecturing and writing, and lives currently in Spain. He is an influential contributor to the pages of the Spanish daily newspaper El Mundo
. He considers the most stimulating points of his career to have been when he was received by Pope John Paul II
during a private conference in the Vatican
, and when Queen Sofia of Spain
slipped into one of his classes as a student and took notes during a lecture he was giving at a summer conference in Santander
, Spain.
Strongly influenced by the research methods and social philosophy of the historians of the French Annales School
, he has attempted to combine quantitative history
with sociological
analysis and accessible narrative. In reaction against an earlier phase when he became immersed in statistical economic history
, he has produced a number of biographies, of the rulers of Spain, who he considers unduly neglected. He has also been one of the leading historians who have attacked the traditional "black legend
" view of the Spanish Inquisition
. His own views have changed since he published a book about the Inquisition in the 1960s: his 1998 book provides extensive evidence that the Inquisition was not made up of fanatics who rejoiced in torture and executions and that, for example, Inquisition gaols were better run and more humane than ordinary Spanish prisons.
and in The Guardian
, "brilliant ... lucid, scholarly and perceptive ... a revelation": http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2002/dec/08/history.highereducation
and in The Weekly Standard, Washington DC, "Henry Kamen is the finest historian of Spain presently writing in any language": http://www.aei.org/article/28431
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
historian
Historian
A historian is a person who studies and writes about the past and is regarded as an authority on it. Historians are concerned with the continuous, methodical narrative and research of past events as relating to the human race; as well as the study of all history in time. If the individual is...
born in Rangoon on Oct 4. 1936. He studied at the University of Oxford
University of Oxford
The University of Oxford is a university located in Oxford, United Kingdom. It is the second-oldest surviving university in the world and the oldest in the English-speaking world. Although its exact date of foundation is unclear, there is evidence of teaching as far back as 1096...
, earning his doctorate at St. Antony's College. He subsequently taught at the University of Warwick
University of Warwick
The University of Warwick is a public research university located in Coventry, United Kingdom...
and various universities in Spain
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
. In 1970, he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society
Royal Historical Society
The Royal Historical Society was founded in 1868. The premier society in the United Kingdom which promotes and defends the scholarly study of the past, it is based at University College London...
. In 1984 he was appointed Herbert F. Johnson Professor at the Institute for Research in the Humanities, University of Wisconsin - Madison. He was a Professor
Professor
A professor is a scholarly teacher; the precise meaning of the term varies by country. Literally, professor derives from Latin as a "person who professes" being usually an expert in arts or sciences; a teacher of high rank...
of the Higher Council for Scientific Research (CSIC
CSIC
The Spanish National Research Council is the largest public institution dedicated to research in Spain and the third largest in Europe...
) in Barcelona
Barcelona
Barcelona is the second largest city in Spain after Madrid, and the capital of Catalonia, with a population of 1,621,537 within its administrative limits on a land area of...
from 1993 until his retirement in 2002. Since then he has continued lecturing and writing, and lives currently in Spain. He is an influential contributor to the pages of the Spanish daily newspaper El Mundo
El Mundo (Spain)
El Mundo is the second largest printed and the largest digital daily newspaper in Spain and one of the newspapers of record in that country, with a daily circulation topping 300,000 readers for the printed edition and 24 million unique web visitors per month for the...
. He considers the most stimulating points of his career to have been when he was received by Pope John Paul II
Pope John Paul II
Blessed Pope John Paul II , born Karol Józef Wojtyła , reigned as Pope of the Catholic Church and Sovereign of Vatican City from 16 October 1978 until his death on 2 April 2005, at of age. His was the second-longest documented pontificate, which lasted ; only Pope Pius IX ...
during a private conference in the Vatican
Holy See
The Holy See is the episcopal jurisdiction of the Catholic Church in Rome, in which its Bishop is commonly known as the Pope. It is the preeminent episcopal see of the Catholic Church, forming the central government of the Church. As such, diplomatically, and in other spheres the Holy See acts and...
, and when Queen Sofia of Spain
Queen Sofía of Spain
Queen Sofía of Spain is the wife of King Juan Carlos I of Spain.-Early life and family:Princess Sophia of Greece and Denmark was born in Psychiko, Athens, Greece on 2 November 1938, the eldest child of the King Paul of Greece and his wife, Queen Frederika , a former princess of Hanover...
slipped into one of his classes as a student and took notes during a lecture he was giving at a summer conference in Santander
Santander, Cantabria
The port city of Santander is the capital of the autonomous community and historical region of Cantabria situated on the north coast of Spain. Located east of Gijón and west of Bilbao, the city has a population of 183,446 .-History:...
, Spain.
Strongly influenced by the research methods and social philosophy of the historians of the French Annales School
Annales School
The Annales School is a group of historians associated with a style of historiography developed by French historians in the 20th century. It is named after its scholarly journal Annales d'histoire économique et sociale, which remains the main source of scholarship, along with many books and...
, he has attempted to combine quantitative history
Quantitative history
Quantitative History is an approach to historical research that makes use of quantitative, statistical and computer tools. It is considered a branch of social science history and has three leading journals: Historical Methods , Social Science History , and the Journal of Interdisciplinary History...
with sociological
Sociology
Sociology is the study of society. It is a social science—a term with which it is sometimes synonymous—which uses various methods of empirical investigation and critical analysis to develop a body of knowledge about human social activity...
analysis and accessible narrative. In reaction against an earlier phase when he became immersed in statistical economic history
Economic history
Economic history is the study of economies or economic phenomena in the past. Analysis in economic history is undertaken using a combination of historical methods, statistical methods and by applying economic theory to historical situations and institutions...
, he has produced a number of biographies, of the rulers of Spain, who he considers unduly neglected. He has also been one of the leading historians who have attacked the traditional "black legend
Black Legend
The Black Legend refers to a style of historical writing that demonizes Spain and in particular the Spanish Empire in a politically motivated attempt to morally disqualify Spain and its people, and to incite animosity against Spanish rule...
" view of the Spanish Inquisition
Spanish Inquisition
The Tribunal of the Holy Office of the Inquisition , commonly known as the Spanish Inquisition , was a tribunal established in 1480 by Catholic Monarchs Ferdinand II of Aragon and Isabella I of Castile. It was intended to maintain Catholic orthodoxy in their kingdoms, and to replace the Medieval...
. His own views have changed since he published a book about the Inquisition in the 1960s: his 1998 book provides extensive evidence that the Inquisition was not made up of fanatics who rejoiced in torture and executions and that, for example, Inquisition gaols were better run and more humane than ordinary Spanish prisons.
Selected publications
- The Iron Century: Social Change in Europe, 1550-1660. New York: Praeger Publishers (1972)
- Spain in the Later Seventeenth Century. London: Longman (1980)
- Golden Age Spain. Basingstoke: Macmillan Education (1988)
- European Society 1500-1700. New York; London: Routledge (1984)(1992) [revision of The Iron Century]
- "Lo Statista" in "L'uomo barocco" (R. Villari, ed.) Laterza, Bari, Italy (1991)
- The Phoenix and the Flame. Catalonia and the Counter-Reformation. London and New Haven: Yale University Press (1993)http://yalepress.yale.edu/reviews.asp?isbn=9780300054163
- Philip of Spain. New Haven: Yale University Press (1997)http://yalepress.yale.edu/yupbooks/reviews.asp?isbn=9780300078008
- The Spanish Inquisition: A Historical Revision. London and New Haven: Yale University Press (1998) http://books.google.com/books?id=orjqSmYJhqoC&pg=PA97&lpg=PA97&dq=yale+up+kamen+inquisition&source=bl&ots=NB3sUKBaJK&sig=tjMtS9OXPd44Xd-WUDnm9b8ZtVo&hl=en&ei=aRnnS6P8CIKdlgf815XkBg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=10&ved=0CEMQ6AEwCQ#v=onepage&q&f=false
- Early Modern European Society. London: Routledge (2000) http://books.google.com/books?id=Jr0NAAAAQAAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=henry+kamen+early+modern+european+society&source=bl&ots=bVOaff3Q28&sig=mOkQWJPiKOpmNriXOeDT7YBjFXk&hl=en&ei=RBfnS6DaCIWKlweFiLD2Bg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=2&ved=0CCQQ6AEwAQ
- Empire: How Spain Became a World Power, 1492-1763. New York: HarperCollins (2003) http://books.google.com/books?id=lfzmiGGoCHsC&dq=henry+kamen+books&printsec=frontcover&source=in&hl=en&ei=BRXnS7aNJ8SAlAeIpv2iBw&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=13&ved=0CFQQ6AEwDA#v=onepage&q=henry%20kamen%20books&f=false
- The Duke of Alba. London and New Haven: Yale University Press (2004) http://books.google.com/books?id=AK8quEtL_FAC&dq=henry+kamen+books&printsec=frontcover&source=in&hl=en&ei=uxbnS8vjKYS0lQfNupnZBg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=12&ved=0CF4Q6AEwCw#v=onepage&q=henry%20kamen%20books&f=false
- Spain 1469-1714: a Society of Conflict. London and New York: Longman (2005)http://books.google.com/books?id=j7Acr02a9KUC&dq=henry+kamen+conflict&source=bl&ots=d_5H-sRu__&sig=c0DdqobVxFYM3TcVVDVzsSjqxhA&hl=en&ei=dhjnS9vJBIL6lwee16ydBw&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=2&ved=0CB0Q6AEwAQ
- The Disinherited; Exile and the Making of Spanish Culture, 1492-1975. New York: HarperCollins (2007)http://www.penguin.co.uk/nf/Book/BookDisplay/0,,9780141016887,00.html
- Imagining Spain. Historical Myth and National Identity. London and New Haven: Yale University Press (2008)http://yalepress.yale.edu/yupbooks/book.asp?isbn=9780300126419
- The Escorial. Art and Power in the Renaissance. London and New Haven: Yale University Press (2010) http://yalepress.yale.edu/yupbooks/book.asp?isbn=9780300162448
Selected Reviews
- On Philip of Spain, by M.N. Carlos Eire in Renaissance Quarterly, vol.52, 1999, "Kamen's Philip is a stunning achievement, not only because of its revisionist outlook and its use of sources, but also because of its style and structure. This is an exemplary piece of scholarship that reads very much like a good novel".
- On Empire, in The Daily TelegraphThe Daily TelegraphThe Daily Telegraph is a daily morning broadsheet newspaper distributed throughout the United Kingdom and internationally. The newspaper was founded by Arthur B...
, "A boldly conceived project that sustains its case with a pugnacious elan that carries the reader through to the final page": http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/4729402/The-reign-of-Spain-was-mainly-brutal.html
and in The Guardian
The Guardian
The Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...
, "brilliant ... lucid, scholarly and perceptive ... a revelation": http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2002/dec/08/history.highereducation
- On The Disinherited, in The Guardian, "Wonderfully accomplished, beautifully told": http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2007/apr/01/art
and in The Weekly Standard, Washington DC, "Henry Kamen is the finest historian of Spain presently writing in any language": http://www.aei.org/article/28431
- On Imagining Spain, Eric Ormsby in The New York Sun, "Drawing on archival sources, unpublished manuscripts, and a vast body of scholarship in several languages, he takes a fresh look at Spanish notions of nationhood, monarchy, and empire. . . . Only someone who loves Spain deeply could have written this book.": http://yalepress.yale.edu/yupbooks/reviews.asp?isbn=9780300126419
- On The Escorial: Art and Power in the Renaissance, Prof Patrick Williams, in Literary ReviewLiterary ReviewLiterary Review is a British literary magazine founded in 1979 by Anne Smith, then head of the Department of English at Edinburgh University. Its offices are currently on Lexington Street in Soho, London, and it has a circulation of 44,750. Britain's principal literary monthly, the magazine was...
(London), June 2010: "Lively and contentious, informed by a profound understanding of the period, and, as always, elegantly written." http://www.literaryreview.co.uk/