Richard J. Evans appointed new Regius Professor of Modern History

Professor Evans, whose recent works include a three-volume history of the Third Reich, will be the 21st individual to hold the post, which was established by King George I in 1724 and is still appointed by the Crown.

He will take up the position in October, following in the footsteps of some of Britain’s greatest historians; among them Sir John Seeley, Lord Acton, GM Trevelyan, Owen Chadwick and Sir Geoffrey Elton.

Professor Evans is widely acknowledged as one of the country’s foremost living historians. The final volume in his Third Reich trilogy, The Third Reich At War, is due to be published in October.

He read Modern History at Oxford, where he took his D.Phil. in 1972, and taught at the universities of Stirling and East Anglia, and Birkbeck College, University of London, where he was Vice-Master, before moving to Cambridge in 1998. Over the course of his career he has examined various aspects of German history; in particular its society and culture since the mid-19th century. He is the author or editor of 24 books, among them Death in Hamburg, a classic study of epidemics and society in the 19th century, and Rituals of Retribution, dealing with capital punishment in Germany since the 16th century.

An accomplished historiographer, Professor Evans is also the author of In Defence of History, a best-selling vindication of the historian’s ability to discover and interpret the past. His work has been translated into 22 languages, including Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Latvian, Portuguese and Turkish. He has been joint editor of the Journal of Contemporary History since 1998 and a judge of the Wolfson Literary Award for History since 1993. He has also won numerous awards for his work and is a Fellow of the British Academy, the Royal Society of Literature and the Royal Historical Society.

Professor Evans was the lead expert witness in the David Irving libel trial before the High Court in 2000, which found that Irving was an “active Holocaust denier”. During the trial he gave evidence which showed how Irving had deliberately distorted and wilfully mistranslated documents, consciously used discredited testimony and falsified statistics to reach his conclusions.

Although ultimately a Royal appointment, the selection of the Regius Professor of Modern History is made on the advice of a committee at the University of Cambridge itself.

Applications were invited from scholars with “an established international reputation in any field of History after the fall of the Roman Empire”. The candidates were then considered by a committee of nine, comprising the Vice Chancellor, Professor Alison Richard; the head of the School of Humanities and Social Sciences, three historians from within the University of Cambridge (none of whom can be eligible for the post) and four from universities elsewhere in the UK and the United States.

After lengthy deliberations, including presentations from shortlisted candidates and interviews, the committee selected one name, which it recommended to the Prime Minister. Protocol demands that the Prime Minister in turn seeks the approval of the Queen. Only when that approval is granted may the University make the appointment and name the new Regius Professor.

Professor Evans said: “I am absolutely delighted at being appointed to this distinguished Chair and very grateful to the appointing committee for putting my name forward. The History Faculty at Cambridge is the most distinguished in the world today and it is a tremendous honour to fill its oldest-established post.”

Professor Evans will become Regius Professor of Modern History on October 1st, 2008, replacing Professor Quentin Skinner, who is retiring after a distinguished tenure of the Chair since 1996.