Peter Ghosh

• 20th century history
• Intellectual history

Professor Peter Ghosh
Born	Peter R. Ghosh 1954 (age 70–71) Sutton Coldfield, West Midlands, England
Nationality	British
Occupation(s)	Historian and academic
Title	Professor of the History of Ideas
Spouse	Helen Kirkby ​ (m. 1979)​
Children	2
Academic background
Alma mater	Merton College, Oxford Nuffield College, Oxford
Doctoral advisor	A. F. Thompson
Institutions	Nuffield College, Oxford St Anne's College, Oxford

Peter R. Ghosh (/ɡəʊʃ/; gauche; ^[1] born December 1954, Sutton Coldfield) is a British historian, specialising in the history of ideas and historiography. ^[2] He was Jean Duffield Fellow in Modern History at St Anne's College, Oxford, and Professor of the History of Ideas at the Faculty of History, University of Oxford. ^[3]

Career

Ghosh read Modern History at Merton College, Oxford as an undergraduate and continued his studies at graduate level at Nuffield College, Oxford, later becoming a Junior Research Fellow there. ^[4] His abandoned doctoral thesis on Victorian finance was supervised by A. F. Thompson. ^[5]

Ghosh was Jean Duffield Fellow in Modern History at St Anne's College, Oxford from 1982 to his retirement in 2023. ^[2] In January 2022 he was awarded the Title of Distinction of Professor of the History of Ideas by the University of Oxford. ^[6]

After retiring he became a Senior Research Fellow at St Anne's College ^[7] and continued to teach modern history at Jesus College. ^[4]

He has two related research interests: first, the interface between political ideas and English politics, c. 1850 – 1895; secondly, the evolution of Western European and British ideas, including historiography, from the Enlightenment to the present. ^[8]

He has written for the London Review of Books ^[9] and appeared on In Our Time discussing Max Weber. ^[10]

Personal life

Ghosh married Helen Kirkby, whom he met as a fellow History undergraduate at Oxford, in 1979. ^[11] They have two children together. ^[12] Their son William is an English tutor at Christ Church, Oxford. ^[13]

Works

• Politics and Culture in Victorian Britain: Essays in Memory of Colin Matthew (2006)
• A Historian Reads Max Weber: Essays on the Protestant Ethic (2008)
• Max Weber and 'The Protestant Ethic': Twin Histories (2014)
• Max Weber in Context: Essays in the History of German Ideas C. 1870-1930 (2016)

References

1. Moreton, Cole (3 March 2013). "Dame Helen Ghosh says: 'I believe the Government will talk to the National Trust'". The Telegraph. Archived from the original on 24 June 2013. Retrieved 22 March 2019.
2. "Professor Peter Ghosh | Faculty of History". History.ox.ac.uk. Retrieved 6 May 2022.
3. "Professor Peter Ghosh". Faculty of History. University of Oxford. Retrieved 22 August 2023.
4. "Professor Peter Ghosh". Jesus College, Oxford. Archived from the original on 13 May 2024. Retrieved 13 May 2024.
5. "'Clapham Junction: the place of the Protestant Ethic in Max Weber's intellectual biography'" (PDF). Cambridge Centre for Political Thought. Archived from the original (PDF) on 10 June 2023. Retrieved 13 May 2024.
6. "Recognition of Distinction 2021" (PDF). Oxford University Gazette. 152 (5334). University of Oxford: 7. 13 January 2022. Retrieved 8 April 2022.
7. "Ghosh, Professor Peter". St Anne's College, Oxford. Retrieved 3 October 2023.
8. "Mr Peter Ghosh". History Faculty. University of Oxford. 12 February 2013. Retrieved 10 June 2016.
9. "Peter Ghosh". London Review of Books. Retrieved 2 August 2014.
10. "Weber's The Protestant Ethic". In Our Time (BBC Radio 4). BBC Radio 4 . Retrieved 2 August 2014.
11. St Hugh's College Chronicle 1984-1985, no. 37, Oxford University Press, 1985, p. 42
12. Boulton, Alison (4 June 2015). "Profile: Dame Helen Ghosh - 'I'm a huge fan of the train'". Oxford Mail. Retrieved 2 September 2021.
13. "Professor William Ghosh". Faculty of English, University of Oxford. Retrieved 3 July 2024.