Lionel Edmond Kochan (20 August 1922 – 25 September 2005) was a British historian, journalist and publisher. He is best known for his work in

Jewish history Jewish history is the history of the Jews, their Jewish peoplehood, nation, Judaism, religion, and Jewish culture, culture, as it developed and interacted with other peoples, religions and cultures. Jews originated from the Israelites and H ...

, having become an academic historian in his 30s and formerly specialising in

European history The history of Europe is traditionally divided into four time periods: prehistoric Europe (prior to about 800 BC), classical antiquity (800 BC to AD 500), the Middle Ages (AD 500–1500), and the modern era (since AD 1500). The first early Eu ...

Background

Kochan was a doctoral student of

Sir Charles Webster Sir Charles Kingsley Webster (25 July 1886 – August 1961) was a British diplomat and historian. He was educated at Merchant Taylors' School, Crosby and King's College, Cambridge. After leaving Cambridge University, he went on to become a p ...

. Before moving into academia, he worked as a publisher and journalist.

Career

His first academic post was as a

lecturer Lecturer is an academic rank within many universities, though the meaning of the term varies somewhat from country to country. It generally denotes an academic expert who is hired to teach on a full- or part-time basis. They may also conduct re ...

in European history at the

University of Edinburgh The University of Edinburgh (, ; abbreviated as ''Edin.'' in Post-nominal letters, post-nominals) is a Public university, public research university based in Edinburgh, Scotland. Founded by the City of Edinburgh Council, town council under th ...

from 1959 to 1964. He then moved to the

University of East Anglia The University of East Anglia (UEA) is a Public university, public research university in Norwich, England. Established in 1963 on a campus university, campus west of the city centre, the university has four faculties and twenty-six schools of ...

, where he was Reader in European History from 1965 to 1969. He was Bearsted Reader in Jewish History at

University of Warwick The University of Warwick ( ; abbreviated as ''Warw.'' in post-nominal letters) is a public research university on the outskirts of Coventry between the West Midlands and Warwickshire, England. The university was founded in 1965 as part of ...

from 1969 until his retirement in 1987. Kochan was born in London into a

secular Jewish Jewish secularism (Hebrew: יהדות חילונית) refers to secularism in a Jewish context, denoting the definition of Jewish identity with little or no attention given to its religious aspects. The concept of Jewish secularism first arose ...

family. His scholarly writing became increasingly concerned with

. In the 1970s onwards, he became more involved in his Jewish heritage. His wife

Miriam Kochan Miriam Louise Kochan (; 5 October 1929 – 1 January 2018) was an English history writer and translator of French. A economics graduate of the University College of the South West, she was the first female graduate of the Reuters news agency, work ...

(c.1935-2023) was a writer and translator and she popularised the ceremony of batmitzvah for girls aged 12 in Oxford.

Selected works

* ''Acton on History'' (1954) * ''Russia and the Weimar Republic'' (1954) * ''Pogrom: 10 November 1938'' (1957) * ''The Making of Modern Russia'' (1962) * ''The Struggle for Germany 1914–45'' (1963) * ''Russia in Revolution 1890–1918'' (1966) * ''The Jews in Soviet Russia since 1917'' (1970) editor * ''The Russian Revolution'' (1970) * ''The Jewish Family Album: The Life of a People in Photographs'' (1974) editor with

* ''The Jew and His History'' (1977) * ''The Scapegoats: the Exodus of the Remnants of Polish Jewry'' (1979) with Josef Banas * ''Jews, Idols and Messiahs: The Challenge from History'' (1990) * ''The Jewish Renaissance and Some of Its Discontents'' (1992) * ''Beyond the Graven Image: A Jewish View'' (1997) * ''The Making of Western Jewry, 1600–1819'' (2004)

References

External links

Guardian obituary

1922 births 2005 deaths People educated at Haberdashers' Boys' School English Jews Writers from London Academics of the University of Warwick 20th-century British historians Deaths from leukemia in the United Kingdom {{UK-historian-stub