David Priestland is a British historian. He teaches modern history at the University of Oxford and is Fellow of St Edmund Hall.[1]
Career
editPriestland's research focuses on the history of the Soviet Union and the development of communism and neoliberalism.[2] He is an occasional political and cultural commentator for The Guardian and New Statesman.[3][4] His main works include a global history of communism, The Red Flag, a history of Stalinism in the USSR, and a historical sociological essay on modern global history focusing on neoliberalism and global capitalism, 'Merchant, Soldier, Sage: A New History of Power', which focuses mainly on a power struggle between three 'castes', or socio-cultural groups, fighting for domination within society. Priestland's main argument is that humanity has shifted from societies oriented towards a warrior-class, through periods of sage dominance into a modern hegemony of merchants, which has culminated in dominance by businesspeople and entrepreneurs.[5] In the book, Priestland's voice is mostly critical of global capitalism, which has attracted some notable criticism from other academics.[6][7] However, Sir Richard Evans, former Regius Professor of History at Cambridge, comments in The Guardian that 'among the many contributions to the dissection of our current predicament, this is surely one of the most-thought provoking'.[8]
Selected works
edit- Stalinism and The Politics of Mobilization: Ideas, Power, and Terror in Inter-War Russia. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2007
- The Red Flag. Allen Lane 2009, ISBN 978-0-71399-481-0 (The three English-language editions 2009-2010 each have different subtitles: How Communism Changed The World; Communism and the Making of the Modern World; A History of Communism)
- World History of Communism. From the French Revolution to today. Translated by Klaus-Dieter Schmidt. Siedler, Munich 2009, ISBN 978-3-88680-708-6
- World History of Communism. Federal Agency for Civic Education, Bonn ISBN 978-3-8389-0055-1.
- Russian edition: Красный флаг . история коммунизма, Krasnyi flag: Istorija kommunizma, ЭКСМО / EKSMO, Moskva 2011
- Merchant, Soldier, Sage. A New History of Power. London: Allen Lane, 2012
- Merchant, soldier, sage: a history of the world in three castes. New York: Penguin Press, 2013
References
edit- ^ "Professor David Priestland". St Edmund Hall. Retrieved 24 November 2018.
- ^ "Professor David Priestland". University of Oxford. Retrieved 24 November 2018.
- ^ "David Priestland". The Guardian. Retrieved 24 November 2018.
- ^ "Writer: David Priestland". New Statesman. Retrieved 24 November 2018.
- ^ Priestland, David (30 August 2012). Merchant, Soldier, Sage: A New History of Power. Penguin Books Limited. ISBN 978-0-14-197082-0.
- ^ "Priestland contends perpetual power struggle in Merchant, Soldier, Sage". The National. 25 October 2012. Retrieved 15 January 2020.
- ^ Timmins, Adam. "review of Merchant Soldier Sage".
{{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires|journal=(help) - ^ Evans, Richard J. (23 August 2012). "Merchant, Soldier, Sage: A New History of Power by David Priestland – review". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 13 September 2024.