T. C. W. Blanning

Timothy Charles William BlanningFBA(born 21 April 1942) is an English historian who served as Professor of Modern European History at theUniversity of Cambridgefrom 1992 to 2009.

Career

Timothy Charles William Blanning attended theKing's SchoolinBruton.He went up toSidney Sussex College, Cambridge,graduating with aBachelor of Artsdegree and completing hisdoctoratethere in 1967. In 1965, he was elected to a research fellowship atSidney Sussex,and in 1968 was elected to a fellowship there. He was appointed to an assistant lectureship at the University of Cambridge in 1972, being promoted to lecturer four years later. He was promoted again to be Reader in Modern European History in 1987, and was appointed Professor of Modern European History in 1992. He retired in 2009, but remains at Cambridge as anemeritusprofessor.

Research

Blanning's first book,Reform and Revolution inMainz,1743–1803(1974), offered a case study that examined the "German Problem",the idea that modern Germany began moving apart from Western Europe in political and cultural terms; Blanning sought to demonstrate that this process began in the eighteenth century, whereas earlier historians had emphasised the nineteenth century as a more important period.His second book,The French Revolution in Germany: Occupation and Resistance in the Rhineland, 1792–1802,was published in 1983. TheFrench Revolutionwas also the subject of Blanning'sThe Origins of the French Revolutionary Wars(1986),The French Revolution: Aristocrats versus Bourgeois?(1987) andThe French Revolutionary Wars(1996). Blanning argues that Napoleon's actions in Germany did speed up the emergence of a German national consciousness; on the other hand it did nothing to modernize Germany's governance, economy, or culture.

He turned to biography, covering theHoly Roman EmperorJoseph IIin 1994. He has published biographies ofGeorge I(2017) andFrederick the Greatof Prussia (2015),the latter of which won theBritish Academy Medalin 2016.

Since the early 2000s, Blanning's work has also focused on cultural histories of Europe, beginning in 2002 with his bookThe Culture of Power and the Power of Culture;this was followed byThe Pursuit of Glory: Europe 1648–1815(2006),The Triumph of Music: Composers, Musicians and Audiences, 1700 to the Present(2008) andThe Romantic Revolution(2011).

Honours

In 1990, Blanning was elected aFellow of the British Academy(FBA).In September 2016, he was awarded theBritish Academy Medalfor his bookFrederick the Great: King of Prussia(2015).Blanning was awarded aDoctor of Lettersdegree by the University of Cambridge in 1998.

Works

Books authored

• Joseph II and Enlightened Despotism(Longman, 1970)
• Reform and Revolution in Mainz, 1743–1803(Cambridge University Press, 1974)
• The French Revolution in Germany: Occupation and Resistance in the Rhineland, 1792-1802(Oxford University Press, 1983)
• The Origins of the French Revolutionary Wars(Longman, 1986)
• The French Revolution: Aristocrats versus Bourgeois?(Macmillan, 1987); a second edition was published in 1998 asThe French Revolution: Class War or Culture Clash?
• Joseph II(Longman, 1994)
• The French Revolutionary Wars 1787-1802(Edward Arnold, 1996)
• The French Revolution: Class War or Culture Clash?(Macmillan, 1997)
• The Culture of Power and the Power of Culture: Old Regime Europe, 1660-1789(Oxford University Press, 2002)
• The Pursuit of Glory: Europe 1648–1815(Penguin, 2007)
• The Triumph of Music: The Rise of Composers, Musicians and Their Art(Harvard University Press, 2008)
• The Romantic Revolution: A History(Modern Library, 2011)
• Frederick the Great: King of Prussia(Allen Lane, 2015)
• George I: The Lucky King(Allen Lane, 2017)

Books edited

• The Oxford Illustrated History of Modern Europe(Oxford University Press, 1996)
• The Rise and Fall of the French Revolution(University of Chicago Press, 1996)
• withDavid Cannadine(eds.),History and Biography: Essays in Honour of Derek Beales(Cambridge, 1996)
• withPeter Wende(eds.),Reform in Great Britain and Germany, 1750–1850(Oxford, 1999)
• The Short Oxford History of Europe, vol. 8: The Eighteenth Centuryandvol. 9: The Nineteenth Century(Oxford University Press, 2000)
• The Oxford History of Modern Europe(Oxford University Press, 2000)
• withHagen Schulze(eds.),Unity and Diversity in European Culture c. 1800(Oxford, 2006)

External links

• Cambridge University page
• "The reinvention of the night",article inTimes Literary Supplement