Ulick Peter Burke (born August 16, 1937, in

Stanmore Stanmore is part of the London Borough of Harrow in London. It is centred northwest of Charing Cross, lies on the outskirts of the London urban area and includes Stanmore Hill, one of the highest points of London, at high. The district, whic ...

, England) is a British

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 stu ...

and

professor Professor (commonly abbreviated as Prof.) is an Academy, academic rank at university, universities and other post-secondary education and research institutions in most countries. Literally, ''professor'' derives from Latin as a "person who pr ...

. He was born to a Roman Catholic father and

Jewish Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...

mother (who later converted to Roman Catholicism). From 1962 to 1979, he was a member of the School of European Studies at

University of Sussex , mottoeng = Be Still and Know , established = , type = Public research university , endowment = £14.4 million (2020) , budget = £319.6 million (2019–20) , chancellor = Sanjeev Bhaskar , vice_chancellor = Sasha Roseneil , ...

, before moving to the

University of Cambridge , mottoeng = Literal: From here, light and sacred draughts. Non literal: From this place, we gain enlightenment and precious knowledge. , established = , other_name = The Chancellor, Masters and Schola ...

, where he holds the title of Professor Emeritus of Cultural History and Fellow of

Emmanuel College, Cambridge Emmanuel College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. The college was founded in 1584 by Sir Walter Mildmay, Chancellor of the Exchequer to Elizabeth I. The site on which the college sits was once a priory for Dominican m ...

. Burke is celebrated as a historian not only of the early modern era, but one who emphasizes the relevance of social and cultural history to modern issues. He is married to the Brazilian historian Maria Lúcia Garcia Pallares-Burke who is the author of two books (in one of which she collaborated with her husband). He was educated by the

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and at St John's College,

Oxford Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the ...

and was a doctoral candidate at

St Antony's College, Oxford St Antony's College is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England. Founded in 1950 as the result of the gift of French merchant Sir Antonin Besse of Aden, St Antony's specialises in international relations, econo ...

. From 1962 to 1979 he was part of the School of European Studies at the

, and then went on to the

, where he is now

Professor Emeritus ''Emeritus'' (; female: ''emerita'') is an adjective used to designate a retired chair, professor, pastor, bishop, pope, director, president, prime minister, rabbi, emperor, or other person who has been "permitted to retain as an honorary title ...

of Cultural History, and a Fellow of Emmanuel College. Burke is not only known for his work on the Modern Age but also for his research on cultural history across its entire spectrum. As a polyglot, he has managed on the one hand to incorporate information from a good part of Europe and has also achieved good diffusion of his books. They have been translated into more than thirty languages. In 1998, he was awarded the Erasmus Medal of the European Academy, and is an honorary doctorate from the Universities of Lund, Copenhagen and

Bucharest Bucharest ( , ; ro, București ) is the capital and largest city of Romania, as well as its cultural, industrial, and financial centre. It is located in the southeast of the country, on the banks of the Dâmbovița River, less than north of ...

Works

Among his most important works are: * ''The Italian Renaissance'' (1972) * ''Popular Culture in Early Modern Europe'' (1978) * ''Sociology and History'' (1980) * ''The Renaissance'' (1987) * ''The French Historical Revolution: The Annales School 1929-89'' (1990) * ''History and Social Theory'' (1991) * ''New Perspectives on Historical Writing'' (1991) (editor and contributor) * ''The Fabrication of

Louis XIV , house = Bourbon , father = Louis XIII , mother = Anne of Austria , birth_date = , birth_place = Château de Saint-Germain-en-Laye, Saint-Germain-en-Laye, France , death_date = , death_place = Palace of Ve ...

'' (1992) * ''The Art of Conversation'' (1993) * "The Fortunes of The Courtier: The European Reception of Castiglione's Cortegiano" (1995) * ''Varieties of Cultural history'' (1997) * ''The European Renaissance: Centres and Peripheries'' (1998) * ''A Social History of Knowledge'' (2000) * ''Eyewitnessing'' (2000) * ''A Social History of the Media: From Gutenberg to the Internet'' (2002) (with

Asa Briggs Asa Briggs, Baron Briggs (7 May 1921 – 15 March 2016) was an English historian. He was a leading specialist on the Victorian era, and the foremost historian of broadcasting in Britain. Briggs achieved international recognition during his lo ...

) * ''What is Cultural History?'' (2004) * ''Languages and Communities in Early Modern Europe'' (2004) * ''Gilberto Freyre: Social Theory in the Tropics'' (2008) (with

Maria Lúcia Garcia Pallares-Burke Maria may refer to: People * Mary, mother of Jesus * Maria (given name), a popular given name in many languages Place names Extraterrestrial * 170 Maria, a Main belt S-type asteroid discovered in 1877 *Lunar maria (plural of ''mare''), large, ...

) * ''Cultural Hybridity'' (2009) * ''A Social History of Knowledge Volume II: From the Encyclopedie to

Wikipedia Wikipedia is a multilingual free online encyclopedia written and maintained by a community of volunteers, known as Wikipedians, through open collaboration and using a wiki-based editing system. Wikipedia is the largest and most-read referenc ...

'' (2012) * ''What is the History of Knowledge?'' (2015) * ''The Polymath: A Cultural History from Leonardo da Vinci to Susan Sontag'' (2020)

References

External links

Emmanuel College biography
*
interviewed by Alan Macfarlane on 31 July 2004 (video)
1937 births Living people British historians Cultural historians Alumni of St John's College, Oxford Academics of the University of Sussex Fellows of Emmanuel College, Cambridge Institute for Advanced Study visiting scholars Historians of the Renaissance {{UK-historian-stub