Jonathan Israel
Encyclopedia
Professor Jonathan Irvine Israel (born London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

, 26 January 1946) is a British
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...

 writer on Dutch
Netherlands
The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...

 history, the Age of Enlightenment
Age of Enlightenment
The Age of Enlightenment was an elite cultural movement of intellectuals in 18th century Europe that sought to mobilize the power of reason in order to reform society and advance knowledge. It promoted intellectual interchange and opposed intolerance and abuses in church and state...

 and European Jewry. Israel was appointed the Modern European History Professor in the School of Historical Studies at the Institute for Advanced Study
Institute for Advanced Study
The Institute for Advanced Study, located in Princeton, New Jersey, United States, is an independent postgraduate center for theoretical research and intellectual inquiry. It was founded in 1930 by Abraham Flexner...

, Princeton Township, New Jersey
Princeton Township, New Jersey
Also Princeton Borough is an independent municipality completely surrounded by the township.Princeton North is a census-designated place and unincorporated area located within Princeton Township....

, U.S.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 in January 2001.
He was previously Professor of Dutch History and Institutions at the University of London
University of London
-20th century:Shortly after 6 Burlington Gardens was vacated, the University went through a period of rapid expansion. Bedford College, Royal Holloway and the London School of Economics all joined in 1900, Regent's Park College, which had affiliated in 1841 became an official divinity school of the...

. He is one of the world's leading historians of the Enlightenment
Age of Enlightenment
The Age of Enlightenment was an elite cultural movement of intellectuals in 18th century Europe that sought to mobilize the power of reason in order to reform society and advance knowledge. It promoted intellectual interchange and opposed intolerance and abuses in church and state...

.

Life

Israel's career until 2001 unfolded in UK
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...

 academia
Academia
Academia is the community of students and scholars engaged in higher education and research.-Etymology:The word comes from the akademeia in ancient Greece. Outside the city walls of Athens, the gymnasium was made famous by Plato as a center of learning...

. He did his undergraduate studies at Queens' College, Cambridge
Queens' College, Cambridge
Queens' College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge, England.The college was founded in 1448 by Margaret of Anjou , and refounded in 1465 by Elizabeth Woodville...

 and his graduate work at 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...

 and the El Colegio de México
El Colegio de México
El Colegio de México, A.C. is a prestigious Mexican institute of higher education, specializing in teaching and research in the social sciences and the humanities...

, Mexico City
Mexico City
Mexico City is the Federal District , capital of Mexico and seat of the federal powers of the Mexican Union. It is a federal entity within Mexico which is not part of any one of the 31 Mexican states but belongs to the federation as a whole...

, receiving his D.Phil. from Oxford in 1972. He was named Sir James Knott
James Knott
James Knott is the name of:* J. Proctor Knott , American politician* Sir James Knott, 1st Baronet , shipping magnate and politician in the north-east of England* James Knott , English cricketer...

 Research Fellow at the University of Newcastle upon Tyne in 1970, and in 1972 he moved to the University of Hull
University of Hull
The University of Hull, known informally as Hull University, is an English university, founded in 1927, located in Hull, a city in the East Riding of Yorkshire...

 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
University College London
University College London is a public research university located in London, United Kingdom and the oldest and largest constituent college of the federal University of 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.

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.

Honors and Awards

He was made a Fellow of the British Academy
British Academy
The British Academy is the United Kingdom's national body for the humanities and the social sciences. Its purpose is to inspire, recognise and support excellence in the humanities and social sciences, throughout the UK and internationally, and to champion their role and value.It receives an annual...

 in 1992, Corresponding Fellow of the Koninklijke Akademie van Wetenschappen (Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences
Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences
The Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences is an organisation dedicated to the advancement of science and literature in the Netherlands...

) in 1994, won the American Historical Association
American Historical Association
The American Historical Association is the oldest and largest society of historians and professors of history in the United States. Founded in 1884, the association promotes historical studies, the teaching of history, and the preservation of and access to historical materials...

’s Leo Gershoy
Leo Gershoy
Leo Gershoy was a history professor at New York University 1940-1975. In his name the American Historical Association awards an annual prize for the best new book on 17th or 18th century European history. An annual lecture at New York University is also named for him.- Works :...

 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
Dr A.H. Heineken Prize
The Dr. A.H. Heineken and Dr. H.P. Heineken Prizes, named in honor of Alfred Heineken, former Chairman of Heineken Holdings, and Henry Pierre Heineken, son of founder Gerard Adriaan Heineken, are a series of awards bestowed by the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences .-History:Alfred...

 prize for history, medicine, environmental studies and cognitive science.

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.

Works

(ISBN 0-19-821860-5 hardback) – in Oxford Historical Monographs series (ISBN 0-19-826534-4 hardback, ISBN 0-19-821998-9 paperback) (ISBN 0-19-821928-8 hardback, ISBN 1-874774-42-0 paperback) (ISBN 0-19-821139-2 paperback) (ISBN 1-85285-022-1 hardback) (editor) (ISBN 0-521-39075-3 hardback, ISBN 0-521-54406-8 paperback) (joint editor) (ISBN 0-19-820196-6 hardback) (ISBN 0-19-873072-1 hardback, ISBN 0-19-820734-4 paperback) – a 1200-page tome in the Oxford History of Early Modern Europe series, documenting the golden age
Dutch Golden Age
The Golden Age was a period in Dutch history, roughly spanning the 17th century, in which Dutch trade, science, military and art were among the most acclaimed in the world. The first half is characterised by the Eighty Years' War till 1648...

 of the United Provinces of the Netherlands
Dutch Republic
The Dutch Republic — officially known as the Republic of the Seven United Netherlands , the Republic of the United Netherlands, or the Republic of the Seven United Provinces — was a republic in Europe existing from 1581 to 1795, preceding the Batavian Republic and ultimately...

 and its historical context (ISBN 1-85285-161-9 hardback) (ISBN 0-19-820608-9 hardback, ISBN 0-19-925456-7 paperback) – emphasizes the role of 17th century Holland, and Spinoza in particular, in the Enlightenment (ISBN 90-04-12765-8 hardback) – in Brill's Series in Jewish Studies (joint editor) (ISBN 90-04-12436-5 hardback) – in Brill's Series in Jewish Studies (ISBN 0-19-927922-5 hardback) (ISBN 978-0-691-14200-5 hardback) (ISBN 978-0-199-54820-0 hardback}

(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 .
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