Peter Alan Clark (born 24 May 1944) 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 species; as well as the ...

. Since 2000, he was professor of

Europe Europe is a continent located entirely in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Eastern Hemisphere. It is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, the Mediterranean Sea to the south, and Asia to the east ...

urban history Urban history is a field of history that examines the historical nature of cities and towns, and the process of urbanization. The approach is often multidisciplinary, crossing boundaries into fields like social history, architectural history, ur ...

at the

University of Helsinki The University of Helsinki (, ; UH) is a public university in Helsinki, Finland. The university was founded in Turku in 1640 as the Royal Academy of Åbo under the Swedish Empire, and moved to Helsinki in 1828 under the sponsorship of Alexander ...

. He retired in 2011. Clark was educated at

Balliol College Balliol College () is a constituent college of the University of Oxford. Founded in 1263 by nobleman John I de Balliol, it has a claim to be the oldest college in Oxford and the English-speaking world. With a governing body of a master and ar ...

Oxford Oxford () is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city and non-metropolitan district in Oxfordshire, England, of which it is the county town. The city is home to the University of Oxford, the List of oldest universities in continuou ...

and graduated (Modern History first class) in 1966. He started his career as a research fellow at

Magdalen College Magdalen College ( ) is a constituent college of the University of Oxford. It was founded in 1458 by Bishop of Winchester William of Waynflete. It is one of the wealthiest Oxford colleges, as of 2022, and one of the strongest academically, se ...

, Oxford. He was then lecturer, reader and later professor of economic and social history at the University of Leicester. From 1985 to 1999, he was the first director of the Centre for Urban History of 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 ...

. In 1989, he was co-founder (with Bernard Lepetit and Herman Diederiks) of the European Association for Urban History and served as its treasurer from 1989 to 2010. He was also Secretary of International Commission for the History of Towns 1993 to 1995. He has contributed to a number of publications, including the ''Cambridge Urban History of Britain''. Clark is a member of the

Finnish Academy of Science and Letters The Finnish Academy of Science and Letters (; ) is a Finnish learned society. It was founded in 1908 and is thus the second oldest academy in Finland. The oldest is the Finnish Society of Sciences and Letters, which was founded in 1838. Member ...

and a fellow of the

Royal Historical Society The Royal Historical Society (RHS), founded in 1868, is a learned society of the United Kingdom which advances scholarly studies of history. Origins The society was founded and received its royal charter in 1868. Until 1872 it was known as the H ...

, of which he was a Council member from 1991 to 1995. He was elected a member of the

Academia Europaea The Academia Europaea is a pan-European Academy of humanities, letters, law, and sciences. The Academia was founded in 1988 as a functioning Europe-wide Academy that encompasses all fields of scholarly inquiry. It acts as co-ordinator of Europe ...

in 2011 and the Royal Belgian Academy (Flemish) in 2015. He was awarded an Honorary Degree of Philosophy by Stockholm University in 2012."Peter A. Clark"
Academia Europaea, 2017

Bibliography

* Editor (with Paul Slack), ''Crisis and Order in English Towns'' (Routledge, 1972, 2006) * (with P. Slack), ''English Towns in Transition 1500-1700'' (Oxford, 1976, Japanese edition, 1988) * Editor, ''The Early Modern Town'' (Longman, 1976). * ''The English Alehouse: A Social History'' (Longman, 1983); awarded the Royal Historical Society Whitfield Prize. * Editor, ''Small Towns in Early Modern Europe'' (Cambridge University Press, 1995), paperback edition 2002. * ''British Clubs and Societies'' (Oxford University Press,2000); paperback edition 2002. * Editor, ''Cambridge Urban History of Britain vol. 2 1540-1840'' (Cambridge UP, 2000). * General Editor, ''Cambridge Urban History of Britain 3 vols.'' 85 contributors (Cambridge UP, 2000). * Joint editor (with R. Gillespie), ''London & Dublin in Early Modern period'' (British Academy/Oxford, 2001) * Editor, ''The European City and Green Space: London, Stockholm, Helsinki and St Petersburg 1850-2000'' (Ashgate, 2006) * ''European Cities and Towns 400-2000'' (Oxford University Press, 2009). Chinese edition 2015. * Editor, ''The Oxford Handbook of Cities in World History'' (Oxford University Press, 2013), 40 contributors, 950 pages. E-book edition. * Joint-editor (with Marjaana Niemi and Catharina Nolin), ''Green Landscapes in the European City'' (Routledge, 2016)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Clark, Peter Academic staff of the University of Helsinki Alumni of Balliol College, Oxford Academics of the University of Leicester Living people Fellows of the Royal Historical Society Members of the Finnish Academy of Science and Letters 1944 births Urban historians Members of Academia Europaea British expatriates in Finland