Robert Skidelsky, Baron Skidelsky
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| Robert Skidelsky, Baron Skidelsky | |
| Born | 25 April 1939 Harbin, China |
|---|---|
| Alma mater | Jesus College, Oxford |
| Net worth | about a bil |
| Website www.skidelskyr.com |
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Robert Jacob Alexander Skidelsky, Baron Skidelsky (born 25 April 1939 in Harbin, China) is a British economist of Russian origin and the author of an award-winning major three volume biography of John Maynard Keynes. He read history at Jesus College, Oxford. He is currently emeritus professor of political economy at the University of Warwick, England.
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[edit] Early life
Skidelsky's parents, Boris Skidelsky and Galia Sapelkin, were British subjects of Russian ancestry. His father worked for the family firm, L. S. Skidelsky, which leased the Mulin coalmine from the Chinese government. When war broke out between Britain and Japan in December 1941, he and his parents were interned first in Manchuria then Japan, and finally released in exchange for Japanese internees in England. He was educated at Brighton College.
[edit] University education
Skidelsky read history at Jesus College, Oxford. From 1961 to 1969, he was successively research student, senior student, and research fellow at Nuffield College, Oxford. In 1967, he published his first book, Politicians and the Slump, based on his D.Phil dissertation. The book explores the ways in which British politicians handled the Great Depression.
[edit] Family
Skidelsky married Augusta Mary Clarissa Hope in 1970 and they have two sons, Edward and William Skidelsky, and a daughter, Julia. His uncle was S.J. Simon.
[edit] Career
During a two year research fellowship at the British Academy, Skidelsky began work in his biography of Oswald Mosley (published in 1975) and published English Progressive Schools (1969). In 1970, he became an Associate Professor of History at the School of Advanced International Studies, Johns Hopkins University. But the controversy surrounding the publication of his biography of Sir Oswald Mosley - in which he was felt to have let Mosley off too lightly - led John Hopkins University to refuse him tenure. Oxford University also proved unwilling to give him a permanent post. From 1976 to 1978, he was professor of history, philosophy and European studies at the Polytechnic of North London. In 1978, he was appointed Professor of International Studies at the University of Warwick, where he has since remained, though joining the Economics Department as Professor Political Economy in 1990. He was appointed Professorial Fellow of the Global Policy Institute at London Metropolitan University.
Skidelsky has been a member of a number of political parties: originally a Labour member, he quit that party to become a founding member of the SDP where he remained until the party's dissolution in 1992.In 1991, he was made a life peer, and in 1992 he took the Conservative whip. He was made chief opposition spokesman in the Lords, first for Culture, then for Treasury affairs (1997-9), but he was sacked by the then Conservative party leader William Hague, for publicly opposing Nato's bombing of Yugoslavia. In 2001, he left the Conservative Party for the Cross Benches. He was chairman of the Social Market Foundation between 1991 and 2001.
Skidelsky has been a Governor of Brighton College since 1998, and is now Chairman of the Governors. He has also been an Honorary Fellow of Jesus College, Oxford, since 1997. He became a Fellow of the British Academy in 1994.
Since 2003, Skidelsky has been a non-executive director of the mutual fund manager, Janus Capital, and since 2005, a non-executive chairman of the hedge fund, the Greater Europe Fund. In 2008, he was made a non-executive director of Sistema, the Russian telecommunications giant. He is a director of the Moscow School of Political Studies and Founder and Executive Secretary of the UK/Russia Round Table. Since 2002, he has been chairman of The Centre for Global Studies. He is also a Trustee of the Manhattan Institute.
Skidelsky writes a twice-monthly column for the Russian newspaper Vedomosti, and a monthly column, "Against the Current" for Project Syndicate, which is syndicated in newspapers all over the world.
[edit] Selected works
- 1967: Politicians and the Slump
- 1975: Oswald Mosley
- 1983: John Maynard Keynes: Hopes Betrayed, 1883-1920
- 1992: John Maynard Keynes: The Economist as Savior, 1920-1937
- 1993: Interests and Obsessions: Historical Essays (Macmillan)
- 1995: The World After Communism: A Polemic for our Times (Macmillan)
- published as The Road from Serfdom: The Economic and Political Consequences of the End of Communism in America
- 1996: Keynes (Oxford University Press: Past Masters)
- 2000: John Maynard Keynes: Fighting for Britain, 1937-1946
Skidelsky's major three volume biography of John Maynard Keynes won the Wolfson History Prize in 1992, the Duff Cooper Prize in 2000, the Samuel Johnson Prize for non-fiction writing in 2000, the James Tait Black Memorial Prize for biography in 2001, the Arthur Ross Book Award for international relations in 2002, and the Lionel Gelber Prize for International Relations.
Skidelsky's study of Keynes received renewed attention during the Keynesian Resurgence of 2008 / 2009.
[edit] In the media
Skidelsky was interviewed about the rise of Thatcherism for the 2006 BBC TV documentary series Tory! Tory! Tory!.
On April 15, 2008. Skidelsky has been interviewed by Russia Today about "Russian politics from the Western point of view".
5 October 2008, interviewed by Andrew Neil on Straight Talk broadcast on the BBC News channel.
[edit] External links
- Robert Skidelsky's Official Website
- Keynes and the ethics of capitalism by Robert Skidelsky
- Robert Skidelsky's monthly op-ed commentary series "Against the Current" for Project Syndicate
- Skidelsky bio and article archive from The New York Review of Books
- Who Comments? - profile page
