Peter Mandler (born 29 January 1958) is a British historian and academic specialising in 19th and 20th century British history, particularly cultural history and the history of the social sciences. He is Professor in Modern Cultural History at the University of Cambridge and Bailey fellow in History at Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge.

Biography

Mandler was born in 1958 in Boston, Massachusetts. The elder brother of Michael Mandler, he is son of psychologists George Mandler and Jean Mandler who moved their family to La Jolla in 1965 when they joined the UCSD faculty. After attending Magdalen College, Oxford, as an undergraduate, Mandler completed his PhD at Harvard where he wrote a 1984 dissertation entitled Liberalism and Paternalism: The Whig Aristocracy and the Condition of England, 1830–1852. Mandler was an assistant professor of history at Princeton University from 1984-1991. While there, in 1984 he co-hosted a three-day symposium at Princeton entitled “Socialism in America,” marking the 100th anniversary of the birth of six-time presidential candidate Norman Thomas. Mandler started teaching in Britain in 1991 at London Guildhall University, and joined the University of Cambridge faculty in 2001. He was President of the Royal Historical Society from 2012 to 2016, and is currently (since 2018) Chair of the Modern History section of the British Academy.

Research and scholarship

Mandler's main research interests are: In his review of Mandler's 2002 book History and National Life, historian Blair Worden states that Mandler praises the work of professional historians like Simon Schama, Linda Colley and Niall Ferguson, who address a wide audience, in contrast to most specialists of the discipline, who put their very subject at risk by speaking only between themselves. In Mandler' own words, "there is intrinsic value in keeping the springs of knowledge 'clear and untainted' but there is greater value in ensuring that the supply reaches the consumer in something resembling its original state". Mandler occasionally makes television and radio appearances.

Works

Mandler's is author or editor of the following books: