The Harold Vyvyan Harmsworth Professorship is an endowed chair in

American history The history of the present-day United States began in roughly 15,000 BC with the arrival of Peopling of the Americas, the first people in the Americas. In the late 15th century, European colonization of the Americas, European colonization beg ...

at the

University of Oxford The University of Oxford is a collegiate university, collegiate research university in Oxford, England. There is evidence of teaching as early as 1096, making it the oldest university in the English-speaking world and the List of oldest un ...

, tenable for one year. The Harmsworth Professorship was established by

Harold Sidney Harmsworth, 1st Viscount Rothermere Harold Sidney Harmsworth, 1st Viscount Rothermere (26 April 1868 – 26 November 1940), was a leading British newspaper proprietor who owned Associated Newspapers Ltd. He is best known, like his brother Alfred Harmsworth, later Viscount Northcl ...

(1868–1940) in memory of his son Harold Vyvyan Alfred St George, who was killed in the

First World War World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

, and whose favourite subject was history. Lord Rothermere also established a Harmsworth Professorship in imperial and naval history at

Cambridge University The University of Cambridge is a Public university, public collegiate university, collegiate research university in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1209, the University of Cambridge is the List of oldest universities in continuous operation, wo ...

in honour of his son Vere, who was killed in the same war. The

King Edward VII Professor of English Literature The King Edward VII Professorship of English Literature is one of the senior professorships in literature at the University of Cambridge, and was founded by a donation from Sir Harold Harmsworth in 1910 in memory of King Edward VII who had died ear ...

at Cambridge University was endowed by Sir Harold Harmsworth in memory of

King Edward VII Edward VII (Albert Edward; 9 November 1841 – 6 May 1910) was King of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions, and Emperor of India, from 22 January 1901 until his death in 1910. The second child and eldest son of Queen Victoria and ...

, who died in 1910. The Harmsworth Professorship was inaugurated in 1922 with an endowment of £20,000. Holders of the chair are affiliated to

Queen's College, Oxford The Queen's College is a constituent college of the University of Oxford, England. The college was founded in 1341 by Robert de Eglesfield in honour of Philippa of Hainault, queen of England. It is distinguished by its predominantly neoclassi ...

, and, since 2001, the

Rothermere American Institute The Rothermere American Institute is a department of the University of Oxford dedicated to the interdisciplinary and comparative study of the United States of America and its place in the world. Named after the Harmsworth family, Viscounts Roth ...

. The Rothermere American Institute also houses the

Vere Harmsworth Library The Vere Harmsworth Library is a dependent library of the Bodleian Library at the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom. The library is the university's principal research library for the study of United States history and politics and is ...

, named in honour of

Vere Harmsworth, 3rd Viscount Rothermere Vere Harold Esmond Harmsworth, 3rd Viscount Rothermere (27 April 1925 – 1 September 1998), known as Vere Harmsworth until 1978, was a British newspaper magnate. He controlled large media interests in the United Kingdom and United States. Earl ...

. The Harmsworth Professor is selected by the Electors of Oxford and a Committee on the Harold Vyvyan Harmsworth Professorship in American History at the

American Historical Association The American Historical Association (AHA) is the oldest professional association of historians in the United States and the largest such organization in the world, claiming over 10,000 members. Founded in 1884, AHA works to protect academic free ...

, established in 1939.

Holders of the Harmsworth Professorship

* Samuel E. Morison (1922–1925) *Robert McNutt McElroy (1925-1939) * Thomas Jefferson Wertenbaker (1939) *

Allan Nevins Joseph Allan Nevins (May 20, 1890 – March 5, 1971) was an American historian and journalist, known for his extensive work on the history of the Civil War and his biographies of such figures as Grover Cleveland, Hamilton Fish, Henry Ford, and ...

(1940) *Vacant (1941) *

Walter Prescott Webb Walter Prescott Webb (April 3, 1888, in Panola County, Texas – March 8, 1963, near Austin, Texas) was an American historian noted for his groundbreaking work on the American West. As president of the Texas State Historical Association, he la ...

(1942) *Vacant (1943) *Thomas J. Wertenbaker (1944) *Vacant (1945) * Walt W. Rostow (1946) * David M. Potter (1947) * Louis M. Hacker (1948) * Merrill Jensen (1949) * Charles S. Sydnor (1950) *

Lawrence H. Gipson Lawrence Henry Gipson (December 7, 1880 – September 26, 1971) was an American historian, who won the 1950 Bancroft Prize and the 1962 Pulitzer Prize for History for volumes of his magnum opus, the fifteen-volume history of "The British Empire ...

(1951) *

Henry Steele Commager Henry Steele Commager (October 25, 1902 – March 2, 1998) was an American historian. As one of the most active and prolific liberal intellectuals of his time, with 40 books and 700 essays and reviews, he helped define modern liberalism in the Un ...

(1952) *

Ray Allen Billington Ray Allen Billington (September 28, 1903 in Bay City, Michigan – March 7, 1981 in San Marino, California) was an American historian who researched the history of the American frontier and the American West, becoming one of the leading defenders ...

(1953) * C. Vann Woodward (1954) * Frank Friedel (1955) * Arthur Bestor (1956) *

Walter Johnson Walter Perry Johnson (November 6, 1887 – December 10, 1946), nicknamed "Barney" and "the Big Train", was an American professional baseball player and Manager (baseball), manager. He played his entire 21-year baseball career in Major League Ba ...

(1957) * Arthur S. Link (1958) * David H. Donald (1959) * George E. Mowry (1960) *

Kenneth Stampp Kenneth Milton Stampp (12 July 191210 July 2009) was a renowned historian of slavery, the American Civil War, and Reconstruction. He taught at the University of California, Berkeley, from 1946 to 1983, ending his career there as the Alexander F. ...

(1961) *

Richard N. Current Richard Nelson Current (October 5, 1912 – October 26, 2012) was an American historian, called "the Dean of Lincoln Scholars", best known for ''The Lincoln Nobody Knows'' (1958), and ''Lincoln and the First Shot'' (1963). Life Born in Colorado ...

(1962) * Frank Vandiver (1963) *

(1964) *

Bell I. Wiley Bell Irvin Wiley (January 5, 1906 – April 4, 1980) was an American historian who specialized in the American Civil War and was an authority on military history and the social history of common people. He died in Atlanta, Georgia (U.S. state), Geo ...

(1965) *

T. Harry Williams Thomas Harry Williams (May 19, 1909 — July 8, 1979) was an American historian and author. For the majority of his academic career between the 1930s to 1970s, Williams taught history at Louisiana State University. While at LSU, Williams was a Boy ...

(1966) * Don Fehrenbacher (1967) * Fletcher Melvin Green (1968) *

David Brion Davis David Brion Davis (February 16, 1927 – April 14, 2019) was an American intellectual and cultural historian, and a leading authority on slavery and abolition in the Western world. He was a Sterling Professor of History at Yale University, ...

(1969) *

Charles Grier Sellers Charles Grier Sellers Jr. (September 9, 1923 – September 23, 2021) was an American historian. Sellers was best known for his book ''The Market Revolution: Jacksonian America, 1815–1846'', which offered a new interpretation of the economic, ...

(1970) *

William Leuchtenburg William Edward Leuchtenburg ( ; September 28, 1922 – January 28, 2025) was an American historian who was the William Rand Kenan Jr. Professor of History at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and a leading scholar of the life and ...

(1971) *

Oscar Handlin Oscar Handlin (September 29, 1915 – September 20, 2011) was an American historian. As a professor of history at Harvard University for over 50 years, he directed 80 PhD dissertations and helped promote social and ethnic history, virtually inv ...

(1972) *

Carl Degler Carl Neumann Degler (February 6, 1921 – December 27, 2014) was an American historian and Pulitzer Prize-winning author. He was the Margaret Byrne Professor of American History Emeritus at Stanford University. Early life and education Degler was ...

(1973) * Richard Clement Wade (1974) * Jack P. Greene (1975) *

John Morton Blum John Morton Blum (; April 29, 1921 – October 17, 2011) was an American historian, active from 1948 to 1991. He was a specialist in 20th-century American political history, and was a senior advisor to Yale officials. Life and career Blum was b ...

(1976) * Willie Lee Nichols Rose (1977) * Norman Arthur Graebner (1978) *

Eric McKitrick Eric Louis McKitrick (July 5, 1919 – April 24, 2002) was an American historian, best known for ''The Age of Federalism: The Early American Republic, 1788–1800'' (1993) with Stanley Elkins, which won the Bancroft Prize in 1994. Life McKitrick ...

(1979) * Morton Keller (1980) * James T. Patterson (1981) *

Samuel P. Hays Samuel Pfrimmer Hays (April 5, 1921 – November 22, 2017) was a pioneering environmental, social and political historian of the United States . Born in Corydon, Indiana and raised on a local dairy farm. He earned a B.A. degree from Swarthmore Col ...

(1982) * John W. Shy (1983) * J. Morgan Kousser (1984) *

David Hackett Fischer David Hackett Fischer (born December 2, 1935) is University Professor of History Emeritus at Brandeis University. Fischer's major works have covered topics ranging from large macroeconomic and cultural trends ('' Albion's Seed,'' '' The Great Wave ...

(1985) * David M. Kennedy (1986) *

Richard Slator Dunn Richard Slator Dunn (August 9, 1928 – January 24, 2022) was an American author and historian. Biography Richard Slator Dunn was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota on August 9, 1928. He completed his B.A. in 1950 at Harvard College, his M.A. from Pr ...

(1987) *

George M. Fredrickson George M. Fredrickson (July 16, 1934 – February 25, 2008) was an American author, activist, historian, and professor. He was the Edgar E. Robinson Professor of United States History at Stanford University until his retirement in 2002. After his ...

(1988) *

Daniel Walker Howe Daniel Walker Howe (born January 10, 1937) is an American historian who specializes in the early national period of U.S. history, with a particular interest in its intellectual and religious dimensions. He was Rhodes Professor of American Histo ...

(1989) *

Joyce Appleby Joyce Oldham Appleby (April 9, 1929 – December 23, 2016) was an American historian. She was a professor of history at UCLA. She was president of the Organization of American Historians (1991) and the American Historical Association (1997). Lif ...

(1990) * James A. Henretta (1991) *

John Lewis Gaddis John Lewis Gaddis (born April 2, 1941) is an American Cold War historian, political scientist, and writer. He is the Robert A. Lovett Professor of Military and Naval History at Yale University. He is best known for his work on the Cold War and ...

(1992) *

Eric Foner Eric Foner (; born February 7, 1943) is an American historian. He writes extensively on American political history, the history of freedom, the early history of the Republican Party, African American biography, the American Civil War, Reconstr ...

(1993) *

Robert Dallek Robert A. Dallek (born May 16, 1934) is an American historian specializing in the presidents of the United States, including Franklin D. Roosevelt, John F. Kennedy, Lyndon B. Johnson, and Richard Nixon. In 2004, he retired as a history profes ...

(1994) * David Kennedy (1995) *

Robert Middlekauff Robert Lawrence Middlekauff (July 5, 1929 – March 10, 2021) was a professor of colonial and early United States history at the University of California, Berkeley. Career In 1983, Middlekauff became the President of Huntington Library, Art ...

(1996) * Ernest R. May (1997) *

Alan Brinkley Alan David Brinkley (June 2, 1949 – June 16, 2019) was an American political historian who taught for over 20 years at Columbia University. He was the Allan Nevins Professor of History until his death. From 2003 to 2009, he was University P ...

(1998) * Robin W. Winks (1999) *

T. H. Breen Timothy H. Breen (born September 5, 1942 in Ohio) is an American Professor, writer, and an expert on the colonial history of the United States. He is currently the William Smith Mason Professor of American History Emeritus at Northwestern Unive ...

(2000) *

David Hollinger David Albert Hollinger () (born April 25, 1941 in Chicago, Illinois) is the Preston Hotchkis Professor of History, emeritus at the University of California, Berkeley. His specialties are American intellectual history and American ethnoracial his ...

(2001) *

Melvyn P. Leffler Melvyn Paul Leffler (born May 31, 1945) is an American historian and educator, currently Edward Stettinius Professor of History at the University of Virginia. He is the winner of numerous awards, including the Bancroft Prize for his book ''A Prep ...

(2002) * Richard R. Beeman (2003) * Joel H. Silbey (2004) *

Kathryn Kish Sklar Kathryn (Kitty) Kish Sklar (born December 1939) is an American historian, author, and professor. Her work focuses on the history of women's participation in social movements, voluntary organizations, and American public culture. Life and career ...

(2005) * Linda K. Kerber (2006) *

Lizabeth Cohen Lizabeth Cohen is the current Howard Mumford Jones Professor of American Studies in the History Department at Harvard University, as well as a Harvard University Distinguished Service Professor. From 2011-2018 she served as the Dean of Harvard's ...

(2007) * Peter S. Onuf (2008) *

Robin Kelley Robin Davis Gibran Kelley (born March 14, 1962) is an American historian and academic, who is the Gary B. Nash Professor of American History at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). From 2006 to 2011, he was Professor of American Stu ...

(2009) * Ian R. Tyrrell (2010) *

Philip D. Morgan Philip D. Morgan (born 1949) is a British historian. He has specialized in Early Modern colonial British America and slavery in the Americas. In 1999, he won both the Bancroft Prize and the Frederick Douglass Prize for his book ''Slave Counterpoi ...

(2011) *

Gary Gerstle Gary Gerstle (born 1954) is an American historian and the Paul Mellon Professor of American History at the University of Cambridge, and a Fellow of Sidney Sussex College. Early life and education Gerstle received his BA from Brown University ...

(2012) *Richard J. M. Blackett (2013) *

Annette Gordon-Reed Annette Gordon-Reed (born November 19, 1958) is an American historian and law professor. She is currently the Carl M. Loeb University Professor at Harvard University and a professor of history in the university's Faculty of Arts & Sciences. She ...

(2014) *

Kristin L. Hoganson Kristin L. Hoganson is an American historian specializing in the history of the United States. She teaches at the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign. Hoganson is a 2025 Guggenheim Fellow. Early life Hoganson was educated at Yale Univ ...

(2015) * Alan Taylor (2016) *

Elliott West Elliott West (born April 19, 1945) is an American historian and author. He studies the history of the American West. Biography West grew up in a family of journalists. His father was an editor for the ''Dallas Morning News'', and his brother was a ...

(2017) * Barbara D. Savage (2018) * Peter C. Mancall (2019 - 2021)† * Patrick Griffin (2021) * Bruce Schulman (2022) * Elizabeth R. Varon (2023) * Lisa McGirr (2024) * Eliga Gould (2025) * Laurie Maffly-Kipp (2026) †Professorship interrupted and later resumed due to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

References

{{Reflist Professorships at the University of Oxford The Queen's College, Oxford 1922 establishments in England Lists of people associated with the University of Oxford