Christopher Guy Thorne (17 May 1934 – 20 April 1992) was a British historian and a Professor of International Relations at the

University of Sussex The University of Sussex is a public university, public research university, research university located in Falmer, East Sussex, England. It lies mostly within the city boundaries of Brighton and Hove. Its large campus site is surrounded by the ...

. He specialised in studying the

Pacific War The Pacific War, sometimes called the Asia–Pacific War or the Pacific Theatre, was the Theater (warfare), theatre of World War II fought between the Empire of Japan and the Allies of World War II, Allies in East Asia, East and Southeast As ...

. He was a resident fellow at the

Netherlands Institute for Advanced Study The Netherlands Institute for Advanced Study in the Humanities and Social Sciences (NIAS) in Amsterdam, Netherlands, is an independent research institute in the field of the humanities and social and behavioural sciences founded in 1970. The insti ...

and a fellow of the

British Academy The British Academy for the Promotion of Historical, Philosophical and Philological Studies is the United Kingdom's national academy for the humanities and the social sciences. It was established in 1902 and received its royal charter in the sa ...

. In 1986 he delivered the British Academy's Sarah Tryphena Phillips Lecture in American Literature and History. Thorne achieved some fame for his new approaches to international history, emphasising the importance of transnational research and perspectives. He was the first non-American to win the

Bancroft Prize The Bancroft Prize is awarded each year by the trustees of Columbia University for books about diplomacy or the history of the Americas. It was established in 1948, with a bequest from Frederic Bancroft, in his memory and that of his brother, d ...

for American history, awarded in 1979 for his book ''Allies of a Kind: The United States, Britain and the War Against Japan, 1941–1945''. He was educated at the Royal Grammar School, Guildford, and St. Edmund Hall, Oxford (B.A. 1958, M.A. 1962, D.Litt. 1980, Hon. Fellow 1989).

Bibliography

* ''The Approach of War, 1938–1939'', Humanity Press (1967) * ''The Limits of Foreign Policy: The West, The League, and the Far Eastern Crisis of 1931–1933'', Palgrave Macmillan (1973) * ''Allies of a Kind: the United States, Britain, and the War against Japan, 1941–1945'', Oxford University Press (1978) * ''The Issue of War: States, Societies, and the Far Eastern Conflict of 1941–1945'', Oxford University Press (1985) * ''Border Crossings: Studies in International History'', Blackwell (1988) * ''Between the Seas: A Quiet Walk through Crete'', Sinclair-Stevenson (1994)

References

1934 births 1992 deaths Academics of the University of Sussex 20th-century British historians Fellows of the British Academy Bancroft Prize winners People educated at Royal Grammar School, Guildford Alumni of St Edmund Hall, Oxford {{UK-historian-stub