Michael Anderson,

OBE The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding valuable service in a wide range of useful activities. It comprises five classes of awards across both civil and military divisions, the most senior two o ...

FRSE Fellowship of the Royal Society of Edinburgh (FRSE) is an award granted to individuals that the Royal Society of Edinburgh, Scotland's national academy of science and Literature, letters, judged to be "eminently distinguished in their subject". ...

, FBA (born 21 February 1942)"Anderson, Prof. Michael"
''

Who's Who A Who's Who (or Who Is Who) is a reference work consisting of biographical entries of notable people in a particular field. The oldest and best-known is the annual publication ''Who's Who (UK), Who's Who'', a reference work on contemporary promin ...

'' (online ed.,

Oxford University Press Oxford University Press (OUP) is the publishing house of the University of Oxford. It is the largest university press in the world. Its first book was printed in Oxford in 1478, with the Press officially granted the legal right to print books ...

, December 2022). Retrieved 10 February 2023. is an economic historian and retired academic. He was Professor of Economic 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 ...

between 1979 and 2007.

Career

Born in 1942, Anderson attended

Queens' College, Cambridge Queens' College is a Colleges of the University of Cambridge, constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Queens' is one of the 16 "old colleges" of the university, and was founded in 1448 by Margaret of Anjou. Its buildings span the R ...

, graduating in 1964 and then completing a

PhD A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, DPhil; or ) is a terminal degree that usually denotes the highest level of academic achievement in a given discipline and is awarded following a course of graduate study and original research. The name of the deg ...

five years later. He joined the

in 1967 as an assistant

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 ...

and was promoted to a full lectureship in 1969 and a readership in sociology in 1975. He was appointed

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

of Economic History in 1979, retiring in 2007."Professor Michael Anderson FBA"
''

The British Academy The British Academy for the Promotion of Historical, Philosophical and Philological Studies is the United Kingdom's national academy A national academy is an organizational body, usually operating with state financial support and approval, th ...

''. Retrieved 11 September 2019. He also served as

Dean Dean may refer to: People * Dean (given name) * Dean (surname), a surname of Anglo-Saxon English origin * Dean (South Korean singer), a stage name for singer Kwon Hyuk * Dean Delannoit, a Belgian singer most known by the mononym Dean * Dean Sw ...

of the Faculty of Social Sciences and Languages from 1985 to 1989, Vice-Principal from 1989 to 1990, and Senior Vice-Principal from 2000 to 2007. Outside of academia, he was chairman of the Board of Trustees of the

National Library of Scotland The National Library of Scotland (NLS; ; ) is one of Scotland's National Collections. It is one of the largest libraries in the United Kingdom. As well as a public programme of exhibitions, events, workshops, and tours, the National Library of ...

from 2000 to 2012.

Honours and awards

Anderson was elected a

Fellow of the British Academy Fellowship of the British Academy (post-nominal letters FBA) is an award granted by the British Academy to leading academics for their distinction in the humanities and social sciences. The categories are: # Fellows – scholars resident in t ...

(the United Kingdom's

national academy A national academy is an organizational body, usually operating with state financial support and approval, that co-ordinates scholarly research activities and standards for academic disciplines, and serves as a public policy advisors, research ...

for the humanities and social sciences) in 1989, and served on its council from 1995 to 1998. In 1990, he was also elected a

Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh Fellowship of the Royal Society of Edinburgh (FRSE) is an award granted to individuals that the Royal Society of Edinburgh, Scotland's national academy of science and Literature, letters, judged to be "eminently distinguished in their subject". ...

. He has received

honorary doctorates An honorary degree is an academic degree for which a university (or other degree-awarding institution) has waived all of the usual requirements. It is also known by the Latin phrases ''honoris causa'' ("for the sake of the honour") or ''ad hono ...

from the University of Edinburgh (2007) and the

University of Leicester The University of Leicester ( ) is a public university, public research university based in Leicester, England. The main campus is south of the city centre, adjacent to Victoria Park, Leicester, Victoria Park. The university's predecessor, Univ ...

(2014), and was appointed an Officer of the

Order of the British Empire The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding valuable service in a wide range of useful activities. It comprises five classes of awards across both civil and military divisions, the most senior two o ...

in the

1999 Birthday Honours The 1999 Queen's Birthday Honours to celebrate the Queen's Official Birthday were announced on 7 June 1999 in New Zealand and Niue, and on 12 June 1999 in the United Kingdom and other Commonwealth realms. The recipients of honours are displayed h ...

"for services to educationalism".
Supplement to the London Gazette
', 12 June 1999 (issue 55513), p. 10.

Publications

* ''Family Structure in Nineteenth Century Lancashire'', Cambridge Studies in Sociology (

Cambridge University Press Cambridge University Press was the university press of the University of Cambridge. Granted a letters patent by King Henry VIII in 1534, it was the oldest university press in the world. Cambridge University Press merged with Cambridge Assessme ...

, 1971). * (Editor) ''Sociology of the Family: Selected Readings'' (

Penguin Penguins are a group of aquatic flightless birds from the family Spheniscidae () of the order Sphenisciformes (). They live almost exclusively in the Southern Hemisphere. Only one species, the Galápagos penguin, is equatorial, with a sm ...

, 1971). * ''Approaches to the History of the Western Family 1500–1914'', New Studies in Economic and Social History ( Macmillan for the

Economic History Society The Economic History Society (EHS) is a learned society that was established at the London School of Economics in 1926 to support the research and teaching of economic history in the United Kingdom and internationally. The society also acts as a ...

, 1981). * ''The 1851 Census: A National Sample of the Enumerators Returns'' ( Chadwyck-Healey, 1987). * ''Population Change in Northwestern Europe 1750–1850'' ( Macmillan, 1988). * (Edited with

Frank Bechhofer Frank Bechhofer RSE (1935–2018) was a British sociologist. He is known for studies around social class and national identity. Early life Bechhofer was born in Nuremberg on 10 October 1935. He left Germany at the age of three, coming to the Unite ...

and Jonathan Gershuny) ''The Social and Political Economy of the Household'' (

, 1995). * (Editor) ''British Population History: From the Black Death to the Present Day'' (

, 1996). * ''Scotland’s Populations from the 1850s to Today'' (

, 2018).

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Anderson, Michael Living people 1942 births British historians Economic historians Alumni of Queens' College, Cambridge Academics of the University of Edinburgh Officers of the Order of the British Empire Fellows of the British Academy Fellows of the Royal Society of Edinburgh