David Cannadine

Sir David Nicholas Cannadine, FBA (born 1950) is a British historian, known for a number of books, including The Decline and Fall of the British Aristocracy and Ornamentalism, and as a commentator and broadcaster on British public life, especially the British monarchy. He also serves as the general editor of the Penguin History of Europe series. He was born in Birmingham and attended King Edward VI Five Ways school within the city. He read histor... more

Sir David Nicholas Cannadine, FBA (born 1950) is a British historian, known for a number of books, including The Decline and Fall of the British Aristocracy and Ornamentalism, and as a commentator and broadcaster on British public life, especially the British monarchy. He also serves as the general editor of the Penguin History of Europe series. He was born in Birmingham and attended King Edward VI Five Ways school within the city. He read history at Clare College, Cambridge, and wrote a doctorate on the history of the development of the Calthorpe Estate, Edgbaston, Birmingham while at St John's College, Oxford, supervised by Peter Mathias, also spending time at Princeton University. In 1975 he became a Fellow of Clare College, Cambridge, and a University Lecturer. While never a student of J. H. Plumb at Christ's, Cannadine was influenced by him. From 1992 he was Moore Collegiate Professor of History at Columbia University. In 1998 he became director of the Institute of Historical... less