Sir John Huxtable Elliott, FBA (born 23 June 1930), who normally publishes as J. H. Elliott, is an eminent historian, Regius Professor Emeritus in the University of Oxford and Honorary Fellow of Oriel College, Oxford and Trinity College, Cambridge.
Born in Reading, Berkshire, Elliott was educated at Eton College and Trinity College, Cambridge. He was a lecturer in History at Cambridge University from 1957 to 1967, and was subsequently Professor of History at King's College, London between 1968 and 1973. In 1972 he was elected to the Fellowship of the British Academy. Elliott was Professor in the School of Historical Studies at the Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton, New Jersey from 1973 to 1990, and was Regius Professor of Modern History, Oxford between 1990 and 1997. He is an Honorary Professor of History at the University of Warwick and an Hon DLitt (Warwick), and a Fellow of the Rothermere American Institute, University of Oxford, of whose Founding Council he was also a member.
An eminent Hispanist, he was awarded the Prince of Asturias Award in 1996 for his contributions to the Social Sciences. For his outstanding contributions to the history of Spain and the Spanish Empire in the early modern period, Elliott was awarded the Balzan Prize for History, 1500–1800, in 1999. His studies of the Iberian Peninsula and the Spanish Empire helped the understanding of the problems confronting 16th and 17th century Spain, and the attempts of its leaders to avert its decline.
He is considered, together with Raymond Carr and Angus Mackay, a major figure in developing Spanish historiography.
Elliott's principal publications are The Revolt of the Catalans, 1963; The Old World and the New, 1492-1650, 1970; and The Count-Duke of Olivares, 1986. In the Spring of 2006, his book Empires of the Atlantic World: Britain and Spain in America 1492-1830 was published by Yale University Press — in 2007 it was awarded the Francis Parkman Prize.Continue Reading »
