Linda Colley facts for kids

Dame Linda Jane Colley is a very important historian from England. She was born on September 13, 1949, in Chester. She is an expert on British history, especially from the 1700s onwards. She also studies the history of the British Empire and how different parts of the world connected.

As of 2010, she is a history professor at Princeton University in the United States. She also works as a long-term fellow at the Swedish Collegium for Advanced Study in Uppsala, Sweden. Before this, she taught at other famous universities like Yale University and the London School of Economics. Linda Colley often looks at history in new ways, combining different subjects.

About Linda Colley's Life

Her Family Life

Linda Colley is married to another well-known historian, Sir David Cannadine.

Her Early Life and Studies

Linda Colley first studied history at Bristol University. After that, she earned her doctorate degree at the University of Cambridge. Her research focused on the Tory Party in the 1700s.

She then became a research fellow at Girton College. She also taught history at Newnham and King's Colleges. In 1979, she made history herself by becoming the first woman Fellow at Christ's College. She is now an Honorary Fellow there.

Linda Colley's Career and Books

Challenging Old Ideas

Linda Colley's first book, In Defiance of Oligarchy: The Tory Party 1714-1760 (1982), changed how people thought about the Tory Party. She showed that the party was still active and important even when it wasn't in power. This helped us understand how political ideas and actions developed in England and Wales during the 1700s.

How Britain Became a Nation

Her most famous book is Britons: Forging the Nation 1707–1837 (1992). This book won the Wolfson History Prize. It explores how people in England, Scotland, and Wales started to feel like they were "British" between the 1700s and early 1800s. This book has been printed many times because it's so important.

Studying Captives in the Empire

In 1998, Linda Colley became a professor at the London School of Economics. For five years, she studied the stories of thousands of Britons who were captured. These captures happened in places like North America, South Asia, and the Mediterranean between 1600 and 1850.

Her book, Captives: Britain, Empire and the World 1600-1850 (2002), came from this research. She used different kinds of "captivity narratives" (stories of people who were captured). This helped her show the challenges and weaknesses of the British Empire and its builders.

Other Important Works

She also wrote The Ordeal of Elizabeth Marsh: A Woman in World History (2007). This book was named one of the best books of 2007 by the New York Times. It was special because it used one person's life story to explore history across many countries and continents.

In 2008, she helped create an exhibition at the British Library in London called Taking Liberties. This exhibition looked at the meaning of important constitutional documents in British history. She also wrote an essay about it, Taking Stock of Taking Liberties: A Personal View (2008).

Understanding the United Kingdom

In 2014, before a vote on Scottish independence, she gave fifteen talks on BBC Radio 4. These talks were about how the United Kingdom was formed and the challenges it faced. These talks were later published as a book called Acts of Union and Disunion (2014).

Her most recent book, The Gun, the Ship, and the Pen: Warfare, Constitutions, and the Making of the Modern World, came out in 2021. It's a global history that looks at how wars and crises led to the creation of written constitutions around the world. Her books have been translated into fifteen different languages.

Lectures and Recognition

Linda Colley has given many important lectures around the world. In 1999, she was invited to give the Prime Minister's Millennium Lecture at 10 Downing Street in London. She has also given lectures at famous universities like Cambridge, Oxford, Yale, and Princeton.

She has received many honors for her work. In 1999, she became a Fellow of the British Academy. She is also a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and the Royal Historical Society. In 2009, she was awarded a CBE (Commander of the Order of the British Empire). In 2022, she was made a DBE (Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire), which is a very high honor. She has also received seven honorary degrees from different universities.

Linda Colley has also served on the boards of important institutions. These include the British Library, the Tate Gallery of British Art, and the British Museum. She sometimes writes articles for newspapers and magazines like the London Guardian and the New York Review of Books.

Her Main Books

• In Defiance of Oligarchy: The Tory Party 1714-1760 (1982)
• Britons: Forging of a Nation 1707-1837 (1992)
• Captives: Britain, Empire and the World 1600-1850 (2002)
• The Ordeal of Elizabeth Marsh: A Woman in World History (2007)
• Taking Stock of Taking Liberties: A Personal View (2008)
• Acts of Union and Disunion (2014)
• The Gun, the Ship, and the Pen: Warfare, Constitutions, and the Making of the Modern World (2021)

Awards and Honors

Linda Colley has received many awards and honors for her contributions to history.

• She was made a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in 2009.
• She was made a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire (DBE) in 2022.
• She received an honorary degree from the University of Oxford in 2021.
• She received a John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Fellowship in 2017.
• She became a Fellow of Academia Europaea in 2010.
• She is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature (1999).
• She is a Fellow of the British Academy (1999).
• She won the Wolfson History Prize in 1993.
• She is a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society (1988).