Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences Awards 2008 History Prize to Jonathan Israel
The Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences has announced that Jonathan Israel, Professor of Modern European History in the School of Historical Studies at the Institute for Advanced Study, has been selected to receive the 2008 Dr. A.H. Heineken Prize in History. Professor Israel was chosen for "his vitally new perspective on the history of the Enlightenment."
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.
According to the prize committee, "Some scholars believe the Enlightenment began with eighteenth-century French philosophers such as Voltaire and Rousseau, whereas others trace its origins to England and to Newton and Locke. But these theories have been altered by the work of British historian Jonathan Israel, who emphasizes the significance of what went before: the early, radical phase of the Enlightenment, dominated by the ideas of the philosopher Spinoza (1632-1677)."
Professor Israel's books include Enlightenment Contested. Philosophy, Modernity and the Emancipation of Man, 1670-1752 (2006); Radical Enlightenment: Philosophy and the Making of Modernity, 1650 -1750 (2001); European Jewry in the Age of Mercantilism, 1550-1750 (1985); and The Dutch Republic. Its Rise, Greatness and Fall, 1477-1806 (1995).
The Dr. A.H. Heineken Prize for History was established in 1990. It was initially intended for European history alone, but in 2006 eligibility was extended to all areas of the discipline. The Heineken Prizes are presented every other year during a meeting of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences. This year the meeting will be held on October 2 in Amsterdam.
Previous winners of the Heineken Prize for History include Joel Mokyr, Jacques Le Goff, Heinz Schilling, Jan de Vries, Mona Ozouf, Heiko A. Oberman, Peter R.L. Brown, Herman van der Wee and Peter Gay.
About the Institute for Advanced Study
The Institute for Advanced Study is one of the world’s leading centers for theoretical research and intellectual inquiry. The Institute exists to encourage and support curiosity-driven research in the sciences and humanities—the original, often speculative thinking that produces advances in knowledge that change the way we understand the world. Work at the Institute takes place in four Schools: Historical Studies, Mathematics, Natural Sciences and Social Science. It provides for the mentoring of scholars by a permanent Faculty of approximately 30, and it ensures the freedom to undertake research that will make significant contributions in any of the broad range of fields in the sciences and humanities studied at the Institute.
The Institute, founded in 1930, is a private, independent academic institution located in Princeton, New Jersey. Its more than 6,000 former Members hold positions of intellectual and scientific leadership throughout the academic world. Thirty-three Nobel Laureates and 40 out of 56 Fields Medalists, as well as many winners of the Wolf and MacArthur prizes, have been affiliated with the Institute.