Kingsley Muthumuni de Silva (born 31 December 1931) is a Sri Lankan academic, historian and author. A former lecturer of history at the University of Ceylon, Peradeniya, de Silva has written numerous books on Sri Lankan history including the highly acclaimed A History of Sri Lanka.
De Silva was born on 31 December 1931.[1] He was educated at the University of Ceylon, Peradeniya from where he received a BA degree in history.[1] He later received a Ph.D from the University of London for his research into the social policy of missionary organisations in the mid-19th century.[1]
De Silva is married to Chandra and they have a son Rajiv (Ravi).[2]
Career
After graduation de Silva started teaching at the University of Ceylon, Peradeniya.[1] He was made chair of Sri Lanka history at the university in 1969.[1] He held this position until 1995.
De Silva has written/edited numerous books during his long career.[8]
History of Ceylon: Volume I Part 1 (1959, Ceylon University Press)[citation needed]
History of Ceylon: Volume I Part 2 From the Earliest Times to 1505 (1960, Ceylon University Press)[citation needed]
Social Policy and Missionary Organizations in Ceylon 1840-1855 (1965, Longmans, Green & Co.)
History of Ceylon: Volume III From the Beginning of the Nineteenth Century to 1948 (1973, University of Ceylon, editor)
A History of Sri Lanka (1981, University of California Press)
Managing Ethnic Tensions in Multi-Ethnic Societies: Sri Lanka, 1880-1985 (1986, University Press of America,)
Religion, Nationalism, and the State in Modern Sri Lanka (1986, University of South Florida)
Internationalization of Ethnic Conflict (1991, Pinter, co-author Ronald James May)
Peace Accords and Ethnic Conflict (1993, Pinter, co-author S. W. R. De A. Samarasinghe)
J. R. Jayewardene of Sri Lanka: a Political Biography (1994, University of Hawaii Press, co-author William Howard Wriggins)
J. R. Jayewardene of Sri Lanka: 1906-1956 (1994, University of Hawaii Press, co-author William Howard Wriggins)
Regional powers and small state security: India and Sri Lanka, 1977-1990 (1995, Woodrow Wilson Center Press)
Reaping the Whirlwind: Ethnic Conflict, Ethnic Politics in Sri Lanka (1998, Penguin)
Sri Lanka and the Defeat of the LTTE (2012, Penguin)
Ethnic Conflict in Buddhist Societies in South and Southeast Asia: The Politics Behind Religious Rivalries (2015, International Centre for Ethnic Studies, Sri Lanka, editor)
The Making of a Historian: A Memoir (2017)
The Island Story: A Short History of Sri Lanka (2017)
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