Prof. David Blackbourn, Ph.D.

David Blackbourn is Coolidge Professor of History at Harvard University and Director of the Center for European Studies.

He specializes in German and modern European history and is one of the leading historians concerned with the emergence of modern Germany. His research interests range across the social, political, cultural and environmental history of Germany since the 18th century. His book "Mythen deutscher Geschichtsschreibung", published in cooperation with Geoff Eley, sparked a debate in the 1980s surrounding the German special path. In his most recent book "The Conquest of Nature", he embellishes environmental history with an examination of political and economic power, technology and the cultural history of the landscape.

David Blackbourn is at the CAS in May 2011 as a visiting fellow as part of the CAS research focus "Green Gene Technology" following an invitation from Professor Christof Mauch and will give a lecture there on 24 May 2011 entitled "Cultivated Landscape and Wilderness: Some Reflections on the German Case".