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Mark Mazower (/məˈzaʊ.ər/; born 20 February 1958) is a British historian. His expertise is Greece, the Balkans and, more generally, 20th-century Europe. He is currently a professor of history at Columbia University in New York City.

Early life

Mazower was born in Golder's Green and spent most of his early life in north London.^[1] His mother was a physiotherapist and his father worked for Unilever.^[1] During his youth, Mazower enjoyed playing the French horn or composing classical music.^[1]

Mazower's father was of Russian Jewish descent.^[2] When Mazower began to write his book What You Did Not Tell: A Russian Past and the Journey Home, he discovered that his grandfather, Max, was a member of the Bund, a Jewish socialist party, was involved in revolutionary activities, and helped print illegal books in Yiddish advocating socialism.^[2] Max was regularly arrested by the Tsarist police and was imprisoned twice in Siberia, before eventually fleeing the country and settling in England in 1924.^[2] Mazower also discovered that his grandparents continued to hang out with Russian-Jewish revolutionaries in Golders Green. Reflecting on the discovery, Mazower said:

Growing up in Golders Green was a weird experience for me because this place has no history. It was a big revelation to discover that Golders Green in the 1920s was full of these super-important world anarchists, who were hanging out with my grandparents and recovering from the revolution. It suddenly made the whole place make sense.^[2]

During his youth, Mazower enjoyed reading classical literature and philosophy.^[1]

Career

Mazower earned his BA in Classics and Philosophy from the University of Oxford in 1981 and his doctorate from the same university in 1988.^[1] He also holds an MA in International Affairs from Johns Hopkins University (1983). Prior to his arrival at Columbia, Mazower taught at Birkbeck, University of London, and at the University of Sussex. He has also taught at Princeton University.^[1]

Mazower also writes for various newspapers since 2002 including articles and comments on international affairs and book reports for the Financial Times and for The Independent.^[3][4]

He has been appointed to the Advisory Board of the European Association of History Educators (EUROCLIO).

Fields of interest

Mazower has written extensively on Greek and Balkan history. His book The Balkans won the Wolfson History Prize and Inside Hitler's Greece: The Experience of Occupation, 1941–44, both won the Longman History Today Award for Book of the Year. Salonica, City of Ghosts: Christians, Muslims and Jews 1430–1950 was the Runciman Prize and Duff Cooper Prize winner and was shortlisted for the Hessell-Tiltman Prize.^[5]

In addition, Mazower is more broadly concerned with 20th-century European history. His book Dark Continent: Europe's 20th century argued that the triumph of democracy in Europe was not inevitable but rather the result of chance and political agency on the part of citizens, subjects and leaders.

In Hitler's Empire: Nazi Rule in Occupied Europe, Mazower compared Nazi German occupation policy in different European countries.

One of Mazower's most recent books, No Enchanted Palace, was published in 2009. It narrates the origins of the United Nations and its strict ties to colonialism and its predecessor organisation, the League of Nations. In his 2012 publication Governing the World, this narrative is taken one step further, and the history of international organisations in general is evaluated, beginning with the Concert of Europe at the start of the nineteenth century.

Personal life

Mazower likes walking, football, swimming in Hampstead ponds and dislikes commuting and celebrity culture.^[1]

Awards and honours

• 2013 Hessell-Tiltman Prize, shortlist for Governing the World^[6]
  

Publications

Mazower's publications include:

• 
  Governing the World: The History of an Idea (Penguin Group, 13 September 2012. .mw-parser-output cite.citation{font-style:inherit}.mw-parser-output .citation q{quotes:"""""""'""'"}.mw-parser-output .citation .cs1-lock-free a{background:url("//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/6/65/Lock-green.svg/9px-Lock-green.svg.png")no-repeat;background-position:right .1em center}.mw-parser-output .citation .cs1-lock-limited a,.mw-parser-output .citation .cs1-lock-registration a{background:url("//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/d/d6/Lock-gray-alt-2.svg/9px-Lock-gray-alt-2.svg.png")no-repeat;background-position:right .1em center}.mw-parser-output .citation .cs1-lock-subscription a{background:url("//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/a/aa/Lock-red-alt-2.svg/9px-Lock-red-alt-2.svg.png")no-repeat;background-position:right .1em center}.mw-parser-output .cs1-subscription,.mw-parser-output .cs1-registration{color:#555}.mw-parser-output .cs1-subscription span,.mw-parser-output .cs1-registration span{border-bottom:1px dotted;cursor:help}.mw-parser-output .cs1-ws-icon a{background:url("//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/4/4c/Wikisource-logo.svg/12px-Wikisource-logo.svg.png")no-repeat;background-position:right .1em center}.mw-parser-output code.cs1-code{color:inherit;background:inherit;border:inherit;padding:inherit}.mw-parser-output .cs1-hidden-error{display:none;font-size:100%}.mw-parser-output .cs1-visible-error{font-size:100%}.mw-parser-output .cs1-maint{display:none;color:#33aa33;margin-left:0.3em}.mw-parser-output .cs1-subscription,.mw-parser-output .cs1-registration,.mw-parser-output .cs1-format{font-size:95%}.mw-parser-output .cs1-kern-left,.mw-parser-output .cs1-kern-wl-left{padding-left:0.2em}.mw-parser-output .cs1-kern-right,.mw-parser-output .cs1-kern-wl-right{padding-right:0.2em}
  ISBN 978-1-5942-0349-7)


• 
  No Enchanted Palace: The End of Empire and the Ideological Origins of the United Nations (Princeton University Press, Princeton and Oxford 2009.
  ISBN 978-1-4008-3166-1)


• 
  Hitler's Empire: Nazi Rule in Occupied Europe (Allen Lane, 2008)


• 
  Networks of Power in Modern Greece, (as editor, C Hurst & Co Publishers Ltd, 2008)


• 
  Salonica, City of Ghosts: Christians, Muslims and Jews, 1430–1950 (HarperCollins, 2004)


• 
  Ideologies and National Identities: The Case of Twentieth-Century South-Eastern Europe (as co-editor, Central European University Press, 2003)


• 
  After the War was Over: Reconstructing the Family, Nation and State in Greece, 1943–1960 (as an editor, Princeton UP, 2000)


• 
  The Balkans (Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 2000) from the 'Universal History' series, reprinted as The Balkans: From the End of Byzantium to the Present Day (Phoenix, 2002)


• 
  Dark Continent: Europe's 20th Century (Knopf, 1998)


• 
  The Policing of Politics in the Twentieth Century: Historical Perspectives (as editor, Berghahn, 1997)


• 
  Inside Hitler's Greece: The Experience of Occupation, 1941–44 (Yale UP, 1993)


• 
  Greece and the Inter-War Economic Crisis, Clarendon Press, 1991 (first published 1989),
  ISBN 0-19-820205-9, also translated in Greek by MIET (2002).


• 
  What You Did Not Tell: A Russian Past and the Journey Home, (Penguin, 2018.
  ISBN 9780141986845)

References

External links

• Mazower's official webpage


• Mazower's page at the Columbia University website


• Ethnicity and War in the Balkans- a short article by Mazower


• Mazower on the Armenian genocide controversy


• Reviews of Mazower books in Foreign Affairs


• Jason R. Koepke on a lecture by Mazower


• 
  Review of Inside Hitler's Greece on "New Books in History"


• 
  Interview at The Guardian
  


• 
  'A League Beneath', a review of No Enchanted Place in the Oxonian Review