Sir Simon Schama | |
|---|---|
 At theFinancial Times and Goldman Sachs Business Book of the Year Award presentation in 2013 | |
| Born | Simon Michael Schama (1945-02-13)13 February 1945 (age 80) Marylebone, London, England |
| Awards | Wolfson History Prize Leo Gershoy Award Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature |
| Academic background | |
| Education | Haberdashers' Aske's Boys' School |
| Alma mater | Christ's College, Cambridge |
| Academic work | |
| Discipline | History andart history |
| Sub-discipline | |
| Institutions | |
Sir Simon Michael SchamaCBE FBA FRHistS FRSL (/ˈʃɑːmə/SHAH-mə; born 13 February 1945) is an English historian and television presenter. He specialises inart history,Dutch history,Jewish history, andFrench history.[1] He is a professor of history and art history atColumbia University.[2]
Schama first came to public attention with his history of theFrench Revolution titledCitizens, published in 1989.[1] He is also known for writing and hosting the 15-part BBC television documentary seriesA History of Britain (2000–2002),[3][4] as well as other documentary series such asThe American Future: A History (2008) andThe Story of the Jews (2013).
Schama wasknighted in the2018 Queen's Birthday Honours List.[5]
Schama was born on 13 February 1945 inMarylebone, London.[1][6] His mother, Gertie (née Steinberg), was from anAshkenaziLithuanian Jewish family (fromKaunas, present-dayLithuania), and his father, Arthur Schama, was ofSephardi Jewish background (from Smyrna, present-dayİzmir in Turkey), later moving through Moldova and Romania.[7][8]
In the mid-1940s, the family moved toSouthend-on-Sea in Essex before moving back to London. In 1956, Schama won a scholarship to the privateHaberdashers' Aske's Boys' School inCricklewood (from 1961Elstree, Hertfordshire). He then studied history atChrist's College, Cambridge, where he was taught byJohn H. Plumb. He graduated from theUniversity of Cambridge with aStarred First in 1966.[1]
From 1966 to 1976, Schama was afellow and director of studies in history atChrist's College, Cambridge.[9] He then moved toOxford University, where he was elected a fellow ofBrasenose College, Oxford, in 1976,[9] specialising in theFrench Revolution.[1] He also worked at theSchool for Advanced Studies in the Social Sciences (EHESS) in Paris.
At this time, Schama wrote his first book,Patriots and Liberators, which won theWolfson History Prize. The book was originally intended as a study of the French Revolution, but as published in 1977, it focused on the effect of thePatriottentijd revolution of the 1780s in the Netherlands, and itsaftermath.[10][11]
Schama's second book,Two Rothschilds and the Land of Israel (1978), is a study of theZionist aims ofEdmond andJames Rothschild.
In 1980, Schama took up a chair atHarvard University as Mellon Professor of History.[9] His next book,The Embarrassment of Riches (1987), again focused on Dutch history.[12] Schama interpreted the ambivalences that informed theDutch Golden Age of the 17th century, held in balance between the conflicting imperatives, to live richly and with power, or to live a godly life. The iconographic evidence that Schama draws upon, in 317 illustrations, of emblems and propaganda that defined Dutch character, prefigured his expansion in the 1990s as a commentator on art and visual culture.[13]
| External videos | |
|---|---|
 Booknotes interview with Schama, July 14, 1989,C-SPAN |
Citizens (1989), written at speed to a publisher's commission, saw the publication of his long-awaited study of theFrench Revolution, and won the 1990NCR Book Award. Its view that the violence of the Terror was inherent from the start of the Revolution has received serious negative criticism.[1][14]
Schama appeared as an on-screen expert inMichael Wood's 1989 PBS seriesArt of the Western World ("Realms of Light: The Baroque") as a presenting art historian, commenting on paintings byDiego Velázquez,Rembrandt, andJohannes Vermeer.[15]
In 1991, he publishedDead Certainties (Unwarranted Speculations),[16] a relatively slender work of unusual structure and point-of-view in that it looked at two widely reported deaths a hundred years apart, that of British Army GeneralJames Wolfe in 1759 – and the famous 1770painting depicting the event byBenjamin West – and that ofGeorge Parkman, murdered uncle of the better known 19th-century American historianFrancis Parkman.[17][18]
Schama mooted some possible (invented) connections between the two cases, exploring the historian's inability "ever to reconstruct a dead world in its completeness however thorough or revealing the documentation", and speculatively bridging "the teasing gap separating a lived event and its subsequent narration." Not all readers absorbed the nuance of the title: it received a very mixed critical and academic reception. Traditional historians in particular denounced Schama's integration of fact and conjecture to produce a seamless narrative,[19] but later assessments took a more relaxed view of the experiment.[20] It was an approach soon taken up by such historical writers asPeter Ackroyd,David Taylor, andRichard Holmes.[21]
Schama's next book,Landscape and Memory (1995), focused on the relationship between physical environment andfolk memory, separating the components of landscape as wood, water and rock, enmeshed in the cultural consciousness of collective "memory" embodied in myths, which Schama finds to be expressed outwardly in ceremony and text. More personal and idiosyncratic thanDead Certainties, this book was more traditionally structured and better-defined in its approach. Despite mixed reviews, the book was a commercial success and won numerous prizes.[22][23]
Plaudits came from the art world rather than from traditional academia. Schama becameart critic forThe New Yorker in 1995. He held the position for three years, dovetailing his regular column with professorial duties atColumbia University; a selection of his essays on art for the magazine, chosen by Schama himself, was published in 2005 under the titleHang Ups.[24] During this time, Schama also produced a lavishly illustratedRembrandt's Eyes, another critical and commercial success. Despite the book's title, it contrasts the biographies ofRembrandt van Rijn andPeter Paul Rubens.[25]
| External videos | |
|---|---|
| Presentation by Schama onA History of Britain: 3500 B.C. – 1603 A.D., December 5, 2000,C-SPAN |
Schama returned to the UK in 2000, having been commissioned by the BBC to produce a series of television documentary programmes on British history as part of their Millennium celebrations, under the titleA History of Britain. Schama wrote and presented the episodes himself, in a friendly and often jocular style with his highly characteristic delivery, and was rewarded with excellent reviews and unexpectedly high ratings. There has been, however, some irritation and criticism expressed by a group of historians about Schama's condensed recounting of theBritish Isles' history on this occasion, particularly by those specialising in the pre-Anglo-Saxon history ofInsular Celtic civilisation.[26] Three series were made, totalling 15 episodes,[27][28] covering the complete span of British history up until 1965;[28] it went on to become one of the BBC's best-selling documentary series on DVD. Schama also wrote a trilogy of tie-in books for the show, which took the story up to the year 2000; there is some debate as to whether the books are the tie-in product for the TV series, or the other way around. The series also had some popularity in the United States when it was first shown on theHistory Channel.[28]
| External videos | |
|---|---|
| After Words interview with Schama onRough Crossings, July 22, 2006,C-SPAN | |
| Presentation by Schama onRough Crossings, June 26, 2006,C-SPAN |
In 2001, Schama received aCBE. In 2003, he signed a new contract with the BBC andHarperCollins to produce three new books and two accompanying TV series. Worth £3 million (around US$5.3m), it represents the biggest advance deal ever for a TV historian. The first result of the deal was a book and TV show entitledRough Crossings: Britain, the Slaves and the American Revolution,[29] dealing in particular with the proclamation issued during theRevolutionary War byLord Dunmore offering slaves from rebel plantations freedom in return for service to the crown.[30]
In 2006, the BBC broadcast a new TV series,Simon Schama's Power of Art, which, with an accompanying book, was presented and written by Schama. It marks a return to art history for him, treating eight artists through eight key works:Caravaggio'sDavid with the Head of Goliath,Bernini'sEcstasy of Saint Teresa,Rembrandt'sThe Conspiracy of Claudius Civilis,Jacques-Louis David'sThe Death of Marat,J. M. W. Turner'sThe Slave Ship,Vincent van Gogh'sWheatfield with Crows,Picasso'sGuernica andMark Rothko'sSeagram murals.[31] It was also shown onPBS in the United States.[32]
| External videos | |
|---|---|
| Presentation by Schama onThe American Future: A History, May 19, 2009,C-SPAN | |
| Presentation by Schama onThe American Future: A History, September 26, 2009,C-SPAN |
In October 2008, on the eve of thepresidential election won by Barack Obama, the BBC broadcast a four-part television series calledThe American Future: A History presented and written by Schama. In March 2009, Schama presented aBBC Radio 4 show entitledBaseball and Me, both exploring the history of the game and describing his own personal support of theBoston Red Sox.[33]
In 2010, Schama presented a series of ten talks for theBBC Radio 4 seriesA Point of View.[34]
| External videos | |
|---|---|
| Presentation by Schama onThe Story of the Jews, March 27, 2014,C-SPAN |
In 2011, the BBC commissioned Simon Schama to write and present a five-part series calledA History of the Jews forBBC Two, for transmission in 2012,[35] The title becameThe Story of the Jews and broadcast was delayed until September 2013.[36] Writing inThe Observer,Andrew Anthony called the series "an astonishing achievement, a TV landmark."[37]
In 2018, Simon Schama wrote and presented five of the nine episodes ofCivilisations, a reboot of the1969 series byKenneth Clark.[38]
Schama is Jewish. He is married toVirginia Papaioannou, a geneticist from California; they have two children, Chloe and Gabriel.[39] As of 2014, Schama resides inBriarcliff Manor, New York.[40] He is aTottenham Hotspur supporter.[41]
In 2010, Schama was a financial donor toOona King's unsuccessful campaign to becomeMayor of London.[42]
In August 2014, Schama was one of 200 public figures who were signatories to a letter toThe Guardian expressing their hope that Scotland would vote to remain part of the United Kingdom in September'sreferendum on that issue.[43]
In November 2017, Schama joinedSimon Sebag Montefiore andHoward Jacobson in writing a letter toThe Times about their concern overantisemitism in the Labour Party underJeremy Corbyn's leadership, with particular reference to a growth inAnti-Zionism and its purported "antisemitic characteristics". Schama and Sebag Montefiore have both written historical works about Israel, while Jacobson has written regularly about Israel and the UK Jewish community in his newspaper columns.[44] Schama made a further criticism of the party in July 2019, when he joined other leading Jewish figures in saying, in a letter toThe Guardian, that the crisis was "a taint of international and historic shame" and that trust in the party was "fractured beyond repair".[45]
Schama was critical of British art criticJohn Berger's support for the Palestinian call for an academic boycott of Israel. Writing inThe Guardian in a 2006 article co-authored withAnthony Julius, Schama compared the open letter written by Berger and signed by 92 other leading artists toNazi Germany, saying: "This is not the first boycott call directed at Jews. On 1 April 1933, only weeks after he came to power,Hitler ordered a boycott of Jewish shops, banks, offices and department stores."[46]
In 2006 on the BBC, Schama debated withVivienne Westwood the morality of Israel's actions in theIsrael-Lebanon War.[47] He described Israel's bombing of Lebanese city centres as unhelpful to Israel's attempt to "get rid of"Hezbollah.[47] He said: "Of course the spectacle and suffering makes us grieve. Who wouldn't grieve? But it's not enough to do that. We've got to understand. You've even got to understand Israel's point of view."[47]
Schama was a supporter of PresidentBarack Obama[48] and a critic ofGeorge W. Bush.[49] He appeared on the BBC's coverage of the2008 US presidential election, clashing withJohn Bolton.[50]
Niall Ferguson praised Schama, "Amongst [historians] currently writing, Simon Schama stands out as theDickens of modern historiography: bewilderingly erudite and prolific, passionate in his enthusiasms and armed with the complete contents of thethesaurus."[51]
| Country | Date | Appointment | Post-nominal letters |
|---|---|---|---|
 United Kingdom | 2001 – Present | Commander of the Order of the British Empire | CBE |
| United Kingdom | 2018 – Present | Knight Bachelor | Kt |
| Location | Date | School | Degree |
|---|---|---|---|
 England | 1966 | Christ's College, Cambridge | Starred First Bachelor of Arts (BA) in History |
| Location | Date | School | Position |
|---|---|---|---|
| England | 1995 – Present | Christ's College, Cambridge | Honorary Fellow[61] |
| England | 12 December 2012–Present | Queen Mary University of London | Honorary Fellow[62][63] |
| England | 2015 – 2016 | Trinity College, Oxford | Visiting Professor ofHistoriography[64] |
| England | Brasenose College, Oxford | Fellow[65] |
 |
| Location | Date | School | Degree | Gave Commencement Address |
|---|---|---|---|---|
 New York | 20 May 1990 | Adelphi University | Doctor of Humane Letters (DHL)[66] | |
| England | 5 November 1999 | University of Greenwich | Doctor of Letters (D.Litt)[67] | |
 Newfoundland and Labrador | October 2002 | Memorial University of Newfoundland | Doctor of Letters (D.Litt)[68] | |
| New York | 24 May 2003 | Bard College | Doctorate[69] | |
| England | 21 July 2006 | University of Essex | Doctor of the University (D.Univ)[70] | |
| England | 2007 | Anglia Ruskin University | Doctor of the University (D.Univ)[71] | |
 Pennsylvania | 2009 | Gettysburg College | Doctorate[72] | |
| England | 2010 | Royal College of Art | Doctorate[73] | |
| England | 19 May 2011 | Royal Holloway, University of London | Doctor of Literature (D.Litt)[74][75] | |
 Israel | 29 March 2015 | Weizmann Institute of Science | Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)[76] | Yes[76] |
|
| Location | Date | Organisation | Position |
|---|---|---|---|
| United Kingdom | 2015 – Present | British Academy | Fellow (FBA)[77] |
| United Kingdom | 2017 – Present | Royal Society of Literature | Fellow (FRSL)[60] |
|
| Location | Date | Institution | Award |
|---|---|---|---|
 District of Columbia | 1977 | TheAmerican Historical Association | TheLeo Gershoy Award
|
| England | 1977 | TheWolfson Foundation | TheWolfson History Prize
|
| New York | 1992 | TheAmerican Academy of Arts and Letters | Award in Literature |
| England | 2002 | TheHistorical Association | TheMedlicott Medal |
 Italy | 2015 | TheAccademia dei Lincei | TheFeltrinelli Prize for History |
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[...] drawing absolute conclusions from [...] fragments of evidence
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