Peter Sugar (January 1919 – December 5, 1999) was an American historian, known for his expertise in the history of East Central Europe, and a frequent speaker at international conferences during the

Yugoslav wars The Yugoslav Wars were a series of separate but related#Naimark, Naimark (2003), p. xvii. ethnic conflicts, wars of independence, and Insurgency, insurgencies that took place from 1991 to 2001 in what had been the Socialist Federal Republic of ...

of the 1990s. Sugar was a recipient of a lifetime achievement Award for Distinguished Contributions to Slavic Studies from the American Association for the Advancement of Slavic Studies.

Early life and education

Sugar was born in

Budapest Budapest is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns of Hungary, most populous city of Hungary. It is the List of cities in the European Union by population within city limits, tenth-largest city in the European Union by popul ...

Hungary Hungary is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning much of the Pannonian Basin, Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the south, Croatia and ...

, and earned a baccalaureate degree from Budapest's Lutheran Gymnasium. He played

ice hockey Ice hockey (or simply hockey in North America) is a team sport played on ice skates, usually on an Ice rink, ice skating rink with Ice hockey rink, lines and markings specific to the sport. It belongs to a family of sports called hockey. Tw ...

for Hungary's national team, and was a member of the Hungarian

cavalry Historically, cavalry (from the French word ''cavalerie'', itself derived from ''cheval'' meaning "horse") are groups of soldiers or warriors who Horses in warfare, fight mounted on horseback. Until the 20th century, cavalry were the most mob ...

. He relocated to

Istanbul Istanbul is the List of largest cities and towns in Turkey, largest city in Turkey, constituting the country's economic, cultural, and historical heart. With Demographics of Istanbul, a population over , it is home to 18% of the Demographics ...

prior to the Second World War, where he learned the

Turkish language Turkish ( , , also known as 'Turkish of Turkey') is the most widely spoken of the Turkic languages, a member of Oghuz languages, Oghuz branch with around 90 million speakers. It is the national language of Turkey and one of two official languag ...

and began to specialize in Southeast European studies. During the war, still in Istanbul, he worked for the

United States Army The United States Army (USA) is the primary Land warfare, land service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is designated as the Army of the United States in the United States Constitution.Article II, section 2, clause 1 of th ...

in the field of

counterintelligence Counterintelligence (counter-intelligence) or counterespionage (counter-espionage) is any activity aimed at protecting an agency's Intelligence agency, intelligence program from an opposition's intelligence service. It includes gathering informati ...

. Sugar's service to the U.S. army made him eligible to emigrate to the United States in 1946. He studied history at the

City College of New York The City College of the City University of New York (also known as the City College of New York, or simply City College or CCNY) is a Public university, public research university within the City University of New York (CUNY) system in New York ...

, obtaining an additional undergraduate degree in 1954. He enrolled in a doctoral program at

Princeton University Princeton University is a private university, private Ivy League research university in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth, New Jersey, Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the List of Colonial ...

, receiving his PhD in history and Near Eastern studies in 1959. His dissertation topic was "The Industrialization of Bosnia-Hercegovina, 1878-1918: The Development of a Backward Region," and was supervised by Cyril E. Black and Jerome Blum.''ProQuest Dissertations & Theses Global'' database. His dissertation was later revised and published by University of Washington Press in 1963.

Academic career

Sugar began a long-term career at the

University of Washington The University of Washington (UW and informally U-Dub or U Dub) is a public research university in Seattle, Washington, United States. Founded in 1861, the University of Washington is one of the oldest universities on the West Coast of the Uni ...

in 1959, teaching European and Ottoman history. In 1987, he was chosen as Instructor of the Year. He retired on March 9, 1989. The mayor of Seattle, Charles Royer, declared that date to be "Peter Sugar Day" to honor Sugar's contributions over three decades as a professor at the university.

Selected works

* (Bulgarian edition – 2003, ) * (Collection of essays by Sugar) *

References

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Sugar, Peter Historians of Europe Hungarian ice hockey players City College of New York alumni Princeton University alumni University of Washington faculty Writers from Budapest Hungarian emigrants to the United States 1919 births 1999 deaths 20th-century American historians American male non-fiction writers 20th-century American male writers

Early life and education

Academic career

Selected works

See also

References