Simon Michael Schama (b.1945) is a British historian, author, and television presenter known for his works on art history, European history, Jewish history, and cultural analysis. His engaging storytelling and scholarship have made him one of the most influential historians of his time.
Born in Marylebone, London, Schama studied history at Christ’s College-Cambridge, graduating with a Starred First in 1966. He later taught at Cambridge, Oxford, Harvard, and Columbia University, specializing in European and art history.
His major publications include Patriots and Liberators: Revolution and Government in the Netherlands 1780–1813 (1977,) The Embarrassment of Riches: An Interpretation of Dutch Culture in the Golden Age (1987,) Citizens: A Chronicle of the French Revolution (1989,) Landscape and Memory (1995,) Rembrandt’s Eyes (1999,) A History of Britain (2000–02,) Rough Crossings: Britain, the Slaves, and the American Revolution (2006,) The Power of Art (2007,) The Story of the Jews (2013–18,) and Foreign Bodies: Pandemics, Vaccines, and the Health of Nations (2023.)
Schama has also written and hosted several BBC documentary series, including A History of Britain (2000–02,) The American Future: A History (2008,) and The Story of the Jews (2013.)
More: Wikipedia • READ: Works by Simon Schama
Historians are left forever chasing shadows, painfully aware of their inability ever to reconstruct a dead world in its completeness however thorough or revealing their documentation. We are doomed to be forever hailing someone who has just gone around the corner and out of earshot.
—Simon Schama
Topics: Historians, History
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