Pat Thane

Patricia Thane, known as Pat, is a British historian.

Career

Thane studied history at the University of Oxford, and then completed her PhD under Brian Abel-Smith at the London School of Economics. ^[1]

She was a lecturer then senior lecturer in the department of social policy at Goldsmiths College London from 1967 until 1994. She was professor of contemporary history at the University of Sussex 1994-2001, then Leverhulme ^[2] professor of contemporary British history at the Institute of Historical Research 2001-10 and professor of contemporary history at King's College London to 2019 as well as a general historian. She has been a visiting professor at Nanjing University, China, and at universities in Australia, Japan, Taiwan, Chile, New York. ^[1]

Since 2019, she has been a visiting professor in history at Birkbeck College, London University.^{[ citation needed ]} She is Professor Emerita at the University of London.^{[ citation needed ]} Thane was a co-founder of History & Policy, which publishes historical research freely^{[ clarification needed ]} online.^{[ citation needed ]}

Thane has a particular interest in the history of gender, old age, pensions, and the welfare state. ^[3]

Alongside Alastair Reid (Girton College), Simon Szreter, (St John’s College, Cambridge), and Virginia Berridge (London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine), Thane is a founder of History & Policy, which publishes historical research freely^{[ clarification needed ]} online. ^[4]

Awards and honours

Thane was elected as a fellow of the British Academy in 2006. ^[1] She was elected honorary president of the Social History Society in 2016, after the death of Asa Briggs, who was a member for forty years. ^[5]

Selected publications

• Thane, Pat (1982), The foundations of the welfare state, Social policy in modern Britain, Longman, ISBN   9780582295155
• Johnson, Paul (1994), 20th century britain - economic, social and cultural change , contributed in sections 'The social, economic and political status of women' and 'Women since 1945', Longman, ISBN   0582228174
• Thane, Pat (2000). Old Age in English History. Oxford [UK] ; New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN   0-19-820382-9.
• Thane, Pat (2005), The long history of old age, Thames & Hudson, ISBN   9780500251263
• Thane, Pat; Breitenbach, Esther (2010), Women and citizenship in Britain and Ireland in the twentieth century : what difference did the vote make?, Continuum, ISBN   978-1441149008
• Thane, Pat; Evans, Tanya (2012), Sinners? Scroungers? Saints? : unmarried motherhood in twentieth-century England, Oxford University Press, ISBN   978-0199578504
• Thane, Pat (2 August 2018). Divided Kingdom. Cambridge University Press. ISBN   978-1-108-60756-8.
• Thane, Pat (17 October 2024). The Rise and Fall of the British Welfare State. London New York Oxford New Delhi Sydney: Bloomsbury Academic. ISBN   978-1-350-41441-9.

References

1. "Professor Patricia Thane FBA". The British Academy. Retrieved 11 April 2025.
2. "Grant schemes - The Leverhulme Trust". Leverhulme.ac.uk. Retrieved 25 January 2014.
3. "Professor Pat Thane". History & Policy. Retrieved 11 April 2025.
4. "Who we are". History & Policy. Retrieved 11 April 2025.
5. "Pat Thane". The Social History Society. 1 December 2017. Retrieved 11 April 2025.