Volker Rolf Berghahn is a historian of German and modern European history at Columbia University

Columbia University

Columbia University in the City of New York is a private, Ivy League university in Manhattan, New York City. Columbia is the oldest institution of higher learning in the state of New York, the fifth oldest in the United States, and one of the country's nine Colonial Colleges founded before the...

. His research interests have included the fin de siècle

Fin de siècle

Fin de siècle is French for "end of the century". The term sometimes encompasses both the closing and onset of an era, as it was felt to be a period of degeneration, but at the same time a period of hope for a new beginning...

 period in Europe, the origins of World War I

World War I

World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...

, and German-American relations. He received his M.A. from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill in 1961 and his Ph.D.

Doctor of Philosophy

Doctor of Philosophy, abbreviated as Ph.D., PhD, D.Phil., or DPhil , in English-speaking countries, is a postgraduate academic degree awarded by universities...

, under supervision of Francis L. Carsten, from 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...

 in 1964. Prior to teaching in the United States, Berghahn worked in the United Kingdom and Germany. In 1988, he accepted a position at Brown University

Brown University

Brown University is a private, Ivy League university located in Providence, Rhode Island, United States. Founded in 1764 prior to American independence from the British Empire as the College in the English Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations early in the reign of King George III ,...

, and moved to Columbia ten years later.

Berghahn now holds the chair of Seth Low

Seth Low

Seth Low , born in Brooklyn, New York, was an American educator and political figure who served as mayor of Brooklyn, as President of Columbia University, as diplomatic representative of the United States, and as Mayor of New York City...

 Professor of History at Columbia, and is also 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...

. He has become widely cited in his field, and his works include:

• Der Stahlhelm: Bund der Frontsoldaten 1918-1935 (1966)
• Der Tirpitz-Plan (1971)
• Modern Germany (1982)
• The Americanization of West German Industry, 1945–1973 (1986)
• Imperial Germany: 1871–1914 economy, society, culture, and politics (1994)
• Quest for Economic Empire, ed. (1996)
• Der Untergang des alten Europas, 1900-1929 (1999)
• America and the Intellectual Cold Wars in Europe (2001)
• Der Erste Weltkrieg (2003)
• Europe in the Era of Two World Wars: From Militarism and Genocide to Civil Society, 1900-1950 (English translation 2005)
• Gibt es einen deutschen Kapitalismus?: Tradition und globale Perspektiven der sozialen Marktwirtschaft (2006)

External links

• Columbia University faculty page
• Books by Volker Berghahn at Amazon.com
• Criticism by Václav Klaus
  Václav Klaus
  Václav Klaus is the second President of the Czech Republic and a former Prime Minister .An economist, he is co-founder of the Civic Democratic Party, the Czech Republic's largest center-right political party. Klaus is a eurosceptic, but he reluctantly endorsed the Lisbon treaty as president of...