Lawrence J. Baack (born May 13, 1943) is an American historian of modern Europe, with a particular interest in Germany and Scandinavia, and a sub-specialty in Antarctica. He is the author of Agrarian Reform in Eighteenth Century Denmark, Christian Bernstorff and Prussia: Diplomacy and Reform Conservatism 1818–1832, and Undying Curiosity: Carsten Niebuhr and the Royal Danish Expedition to Arabia 1761–1767, [1] among other works.
Baack was born in Berkeley, California, which remains his home today. He graduated in 1964 from the University of California, Berkeley, with a major in history. [2] At Berkeley, his advisor was Raymond J. Sontag, the well-known scholar in European diplomatic history, [3] and was on the varsity track team running under the legendary Olympic coach Brutus Hamilton. He was later asked to edit a collection of Hamilton's writings and letters. [4]
Baack was an officer in the United States Navy from 1964 to 1969, and had three deployments to Vietnam during the Vietnam War. [5]
He subsequently entered graduate school in history at Stanford University. There he was a student of Peter Paret, [6] the distinguished Europeanist, who greatly influenced his approach to the study of history. He received his PhD in 1973. His academic career began at the University of Nebraska, Lincoln, where he was promoted and tenured, and became Vice Chair of the History Department. He also served as Head of the Area Studies Program in International Affairs and Business, Chairman of the University Libraries Committee and a member of the University Research Council. While at Nebraska, he was also a guest professor at the U.S. Naval War College in Newport, Rhode Island, and was selected by the National Science Foundation as the U.S. Antarctic Fellow for 1979–80. [7] [8] During that year he participated in American research activities in Antarctica including the exploration of the Ellsworth Mountains. [9] At Nebraska his major published research studies examined social and agricultural change in 18th-century Denmark, and Prussia's German and European policies and notions of German nationhood during the first third of the 19th century. The latter work has been called "a remarkable scholarly achievement" (Felix Gilbert), and the reviewer in the English Historical Review concluded "Baack's outstanding study of Pre-March Prussia cannot be ignored by anyone interested in modern German history." (William Carr). [10] [11]
After his work in Antarctica, he returned to the San Francisco Bay Area and, beginning a business career, accepted a position as the director of education at the Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E), at that time the nation's largest gas and electric utility. He subsequently held a number of executive positions at PG&E, including head of the community and governmental relations departments and vice president for corporate planning. While at PG&E, he continued to be involved academically, normally teaching a seminar each semester at either San Francisco State University or the University of California, Berkeley. [12]
During that period he was also active as a civic leader in the San Francisco area. He served as President of the Bay Area Economic Forum, a leadership partnership of governmental, business, university, environmental, community and labor leaders in the region. [13] He was also Chairman of the Bay Area Defense Conversion Task Force charged with the challenge of dealing with the closure of twelve military bases in the region in the wake of the end of the Cold War with the attendant loss of over 250,000 jobs. He was the co-chair of the Bay Area Water Transit Task Force, and was asked to be the chair of the board of directors of the Mathematics, Engineering, Science Achievement Program by the president of the University of California System, a program serving historically under-represented minorities in the California schools and universities. [14] He was also appointed to the California Commission on the Management and Leadership of the Public Schools, the Director's Blue Ribbon Task Force for the California State Park System, the California Economic Policy Working Group of the California State Legislature, and the Regional Planning Committee for the Association of Bay Area Governments. He has served as a director or trustee for a number of organizations whose work focused on services for urban youth, education, economic opportunity for minority communities, and reducing poverty and homelessness, as well as for organizations such as the United Way of the Bay Area and the World Affairs Council of Northern California. [15]
In retirement, Baack returned to academic research and was a visiting scholar in the history department at the University of California, Berkeley from 2003 to 2011. His research interests and publications have focused on European scientific exploration in the 18th century. [16]
He has been married, since 1964, to Dr. Jane E. Baack, a retired professor of organizational behavior at San Francisco State University. He has two children, James, an information technology engineer at PG&E, and Sally, professor of strategic management, and chair of the management department at San Francisco State University, and four grandchildren.
Carsten Niebuhr, or Karsten Niebuhr, was a German mathematician, cartographer, and explorer in the service of Denmark. He is renowned for his participation in the Danish Arabia expedition (1761-1767). He was the father of the Danish-German statesman and historian Barthold Georg Niebuhr, who published an account of his father's life in 1817.
Louis Charles Bernacchi was an Australian physicist and astronomer best known for his role in several Antarctic expeditions.
Carsten Egeberg Borchgrevink was a Norwegian polar explorer and a pioneer of Antarctic travel. He inspired Sir Robert Falcon Scott, Sir Ernest Shackleton, Roald Amundsen, and others associated with the Heroic Age of Antarctic Exploration.
Pedro Fages (1734–1794) was a Spanish soldier, explorer, first Lieutenant Governor of the province of the Californias under Gaspar de Portolá. Fages claimed the governorship after Portolá's departure, acting as governor in opposition to the official governor Felipe de Barri, and later served officially as fifth (1782–91) Governor of the Californias.
Arabia Felix was the Latin name previously used by geographers to describe South Arabia, or what is now Yemen.
Adelaide Island is a large, mainly ice-covered island, 139 kilometres (75 nmi) long and 37 kilometres (20 nmi) wide, lying at the north side of Marguerite Bay off the west coast of the Antarctic Peninsula. The Ginger Islands lie off the southern end. Mount Bodys is the easternmost mountain on Adelaide Island, rising to over 1,220 m. The island lies within the Argentine, British and Chilean Antarctic claims.
Siganidae, the rabbitfishes, are a small family of ray-finned fishes in the order Perciformes. The only extant genus is Siganus, the rabbitfish and spinefoot. However, a number of genera are known from fossils.
The Heroic Age of Antarctic Exploration was an era in the exploration of the continent of Antarctica which began at the end of the 19th century, and ended after the First World War; the Shackleton–Rowett Expedition of 1921–1922 is often cited by historians as the dividing line between the "Heroic" and "Mechanical" ages.
Cape Adare is a prominent cape of black basalt forming the northern tip of the Adare Peninsula and the north-easternmost extremity of Victoria Land, East Antarctica.
Bayt al-Faqīh or Beit al-Faqih is a city in Al Hudaydah Governorate in Yemen. It is located on the pilgrimage and trade route across the Tihamah plain between Al Hudaydah and Ta'izz. It is 50 km south of Al Hudaydah and 150 km southwest of the Yemeni capital of San‘a’ and lies at an altitude of 122 m. Its population was 28,773 in the 1994 census and estimated at 41,652 in 2005.
Thorkild Hansen was a Danish novelist most noted for his historical fiction. He is popularly known for his trilogy of novels about the Danish slave trade which is composed of Coast of Slaves (1967), Ships of Slaves (1968), and Islands of Slaves.
Al-Mahdi Abbas was an Imam of Yemen who ruled in 1748–1775. He belonged to the Qasimid family, descended from the Islamic prophet Muhammad, which dominated the Zaidi imamate of Yemen in 1597–1962.
William E. Siri was an American biophysicist, mountaineer and environmentalist.
Frank Elmer Peabody, was an American palaeontologist noted for his research on fossil trackways and reptile and amphibian skeletal structure.
The Richmond Field Station (RFS) is a satellite campus of the University of California, Berkeley located in Richmond, California. The name was changed to the Richmond Bay Campus (RBC) in 2012 and then Berkeley Global Campus at Richmond Bay (BGC) in October 2014, reflecting plans to expand the site to address global issues, first as a second campus for Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), then as an expansion of the main campus in Berkeley itself. In 2016, the expansion plans were suspended and the name reverted to Richmond Field Station.
Frederik Christian von Haven was a Danish philologist and theologian who took part in the Danish expedition to Yemen.
The Danish Arabia expedition was a Danish scientific expedition to Egypt, Arabia, and Syria. Its principal goal was to elucidate the Old Testament with additional research goals concerned with natural history, geography, and cartography. It had six members, of whom only Carsten Niebuhr survived, returning to Denmark in 1767. The journey has been chronicled by the 20th century novelist, Thorkild Hansen, in his novel Arabia Felix.
Jean Henri Desmercières was a French-Danish merchant, banker and major landowner in Holstein where he reclaimed large areas along the North Sea coast.
Jørgen Balthazar Winterfeldt was a Danish naval officer and philanthropist. He was admiral from 1804 and was awarded the Order of the Elephant in 1811. He established Winterfeldts Stiftelse at Klerkegade 25 in Copenhagen in 1805. He was chief of the Naval Cadet Academy in from 1782 until 1792.
HDMS Grønland (Greenland) was a ship of the line of the Dano-Norwegian Navy, built in 1756 and decommissioned in 1791. Grønland spent considerable time in the Mediterranean Sea, where she protected Danish merchant convoys. Grønland took part in the bombardment of Algiers in 1770 but otherwise did not see any action in battle. It is noted in the Danish Admiralty's papers that she was an unusually seaworthy ship.