Jonathan Israel
MODERN EUROPEAN HISTORY
Professor
School of Historical
Studies

Jonathan Israel’s work is concerned with European and European colonial history from the Renaissance to the eighteenth century, with particular emphasis on the history of ideas, the Dutch Golden Age (1590-1713), including the Dutch global trade system, seventeenth-century Dutch Jewry and Spinoza, the "Glorious Revolution" of 1688-91 in Britain, and Spanish imperial strategy especially in Mexico, the Caribbean and the Low Countries. His books include European Jewry in the Age of Mercantilism, 1550-1750 (1985); The Dutch Republic.  Its Rise, Greatness and Fall, 1477-1806 (1995); Radical Enlightenment: Philosophy and the Making of Modernity, 1650 –1750 (2001); and Enlightenment: Philosophy, Modernity, and the Emancipation of Man 1670-1752 (2006).  His recent work focuses on the impact of radical thought (especially Spinoza, Bayle, Diderot and the eighteenth century French materialists), and on the Enlightenment and emergence of modern ideas of democracy, equality, toleration, freedom of the press and individual freedom.

Ph.D., University of Oxford, 1972; University of Hull, Assistant Lecturer, 1972-73, Lecturer, 1973-74; University College London, Lecturer, 1974-81, Reader, 1981-85, Professor, 1985-2000; Institute for Advanced Study, Professor, 2001-; Fellow, British Academy, 1992; Corresponding Fellow, Royal Netherlands Academy of Sciences, 1994; University of Amsterdam, Honorary Professor, 2003.