Robert John Weston Evans

Robert John Weston Evans FLSW FBA (born 1943) is a historian, whose speciality is the post-medieval history of Central and Eastern Europe. He was educated at Dean Close School, Cheltenham and later at Jesus College, Cambridge.^[1] Evans was Regius Professor of Modern History in the University of Oxford from 1997 to 2011, and is a Fellow of Oriel College, Oxford.^[1] He works on the post-medieval history of Central and Eastern Europe, especially concerning that of the Habsburg lands from 1526–1918.

He has a particular interest in the role of language in historical development. His main current research is on a history of Hungary, from 1740–1945. He also studies the history of Wales and is the President of Cymdeithas Dafydd ap Gwilym, the Oxford University Welsh language society. He is a Founding Fellow of the Learned Society of Wales and is a Member of its inaugural Council.

Publications

• 'The Significance of the White Mountain for the Culture of the Czech Lands', Historical Research, 44 (1971), pp. 34–54.
• Rudolf II and his World. A Study in Intellectual History, 1576–1612 (Oxford, 1973)
• 'Humanism and Counter-Revolution at the Central European Universities', History of Education, 3: 2 (1974), pp. 1–15.
• 'Learned Societies in Germany in the Seventeenth Century', European History Review, 7 (1977), pp. 129–51.
• The Making of the Habsburg Monarchy, 1550–1700. An Interpretation (Oxford, 1979)
• 'Rantzau and Welzer: Aspects of later German humanism', History of European Ideas, 5: 3 (1984), pp. 257–72.
• 'Culture and Anarchy in the Empire, 1540–1680', Central European History, 18: 1 (Mar. 1985), pp. 14–30.
• The Coming of the First World War, ed. Robert Evans and Hartmut Pogge von Strandmann (Oxford, 1988)
• 'The Habsburgs and the Hungarian Problem, 1790–1848', Transactions of the Royal Historical Society, 5th ser., vol. 39 (1989), pp. 41–62.
• 'Maria Theresa and Hungary', and 'Joseph II and Nationality in the Habsburg Lands', in Enlightened Absolutism: Reform and Reformers in Later Eighteenth-Century Europe, ed. H.M. Scott (Houndmills, 1991), pp. 189–207 and 209-19.
• Crown, Church and Estates. Central European Politics in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries, ed. Robert Evans and T.V. Thomas (London, 1991)
• 'Essay and Reflection: Frontiers and national identities in Central Europe', The International History Review, 14: 3 (Aug. 1992), pp. 480–502.
• The language of history and the history of language: an inaugural lecture delivered before the University of Oxford on 11 May 1998 (Oxford, 1998) 34pp.
• 'Language and Society in the Nineteenth Century: Some Central European Comparisons', in Language and Community in the Nineteenth Century, ed. Geraint H. Jenkins (Cardiff, 1999).
• 'Liberalism, Nationalism, and the Coming of the Revolution', and '1848 in the Habsburg Monarchy', in The Revolutions in Europe, 1848-9: From Reform to Reaction, ed. Robert Evans and H. Pogge von Strandmann (Oxford, 2000), pp. 9–26, 181–206.
• Wales in European Context. Some Historical Reflections (Aberystwyth, 2001), 31pp.
• Great Britain and East-Central Europe, 1908–48. A Study in Perceptions (London, 2002), 31pp.
• 'Széchenyi and Austria', in History and Biography: Essays in honour of Derek Beals, ed. T.C.W. Blanning and David Cannadine (Cambridge, 2002), pp. 113–41.
• 'A Czech Historian in Troubled Times: J. V. Polišenský', Past & Present, 176: 1 (2002), pp. 257–74.
• '1848 in Mitteleuropa: Ereignis und Erinnerung', in 1848: Ereignis und Erinnerung in den politischen Kulturen Mitteleuropas, ed. Barbara Haider and Hans Peter Hye (Vienna, 2003), pp. 31–55.
• 'Kossuth and Štúr: Two national heroes', in Lajos Kossuth Sent Word..., ed. László Péter, Martyn Rady and Peter Sherwood (London, 2003), pp. 119–34.
• Great Britain and Central Europe, 1867–1914, ed. Robert Evans, Dusan Kovac and Edita Ivanickova (Bratislava, 2003)
• 'Language and State-building: The Case of the Habsburg Monarchy', Austrian History Yearbook, vol. xxxv (2004), pp. 1–24.
• 'The Making of October Fifteenth: C.A. Macartney and his Correspondents', in British-Hungarian Relations since 1848, ed. Laszlo Peter and Martyn Rady (London, 2004), pp. 259–70.
• '"The Manuscripts": The culture of politics and forgery in Central Europe', in A Rattleskull Genius: The many faces of Iolo Morganwg, ed. Geraint H. Jenkins (Cardiff, 2005), pp. 51–68.
• Curiosity and Wonder from the Renaissance to the Enlightenment, ed. Robert Evans and Alexander Marr (Aldershot, 2006)
• Austria, Hungary and the Habsburgs. Essays on Central Europe, c.1683–1867 (Oxford, 2006)
• 'Europa in der britischen Historiographie', in Nationale Geschichtskulturen. Bilanz, Ausstrahlung, Europabezogenheit (Mainz/Stuttgart, 2006), pp. 77–93.
• 'Coming to Terms with the Habsburgs: Reflections on the historiography of Central Europe', in Does Central Europe Still Exist? History, economy, identity, ed. Thomas Row (Vienna, 2006), pp. 11–24.
• Czechoslovakia in a Nationalist and Fascist Europe 1918–1948. Proceedings of the British Academy no. 140. Ed. Robert Evans and Mark Cornwall (Oxford, 2007)
• 'The Successor States', in Twisted Paths: Europe 1914–1945, ed. Robert Gerwarth (Oxford, 2007), pp. 210–36.
• 'The Politics of Language and the Languages of Politics: Latin and the vernaculars in eighteenth-century Hungary', in Cultures of Power in Europe during the Long Eighteenth Century, ed. Hamish Scott and Brendan Simms (Cambridge, 2007), pp. 200–24.
• 'The Limits of Loyalty', in The Limits of Loyalty: Imperial symbolism, popular allegiances, and state patriotism in the late Habsburg Monarchy, ed. Laurence Cole and Daniel Unowsky (New York, 2007), pp. 223–32.
• 'Communicating Empire: The Habsburgs and their critics, 1700–1919 (The Prothero Lecture)', Proceedings of the Royal Historical Society, 19 (2009), pp. 117–38.
• 'The Creighton Century: British historians and Europe', Historical Research, 82, no. 216 (2009), pp. 320–39.
• 'Afterword', in Re-Contextualising East Central European History: Nation, culture and minority groups, ed. Robert Pyrah and Marius Turda (Leeds, 2010), pp. 155–8.
• Wales and the Wider World: Welsh history in an international context, ed. T.M. Charles-Edwards and Robert Evans (Donington, 2010)
• The Uses of the Middle Ages in Modern European States, ed. Robert Evans and Guy P. Marchal (Basingstoke, 2010)
• The Holy Roman Empire 1495–1806, ed. Robert Evans, Michael Schaich, and Peter H. Wilson (Oxford, 2011)
• 'Confession and Nation in Early Modern Central Europe', Central Europe, 9, no. 1 (May 2011), pp. 2–17.
• 'Official Languages: A brief prehistory', in Language and History, Linguistics and Historiography, ed. Nils Langer, Steffan Davies, and Wim Vandenbussche (Oxford, 2011), pp. 129–46.
• 'National Historiography, 1850-1950: The European Context', in Writing a Small Nation's Past: Wales in comparative perspective, 1850-1950, ed. Neil Evans and Huw Pryce (Farnham, 2013), pp. 31-48.

References

1. Who's Who 2008, p.737

External links

• Robert John Evans at Oxford University's website