Linda Colley facts for kids

Dame Linda Jane Colley, born on September 13, 1949, in Chester, England, is a highly respected historian. She specializes in British, imperial, and global history from the 1700s onwards. As of 2025, she is a history professor at Princeton University in the United States. She also holds a long-term fellowship at the Swedish Collegium for Advanced Study in Sweden. Before these roles, she taught at Yale University and the London School of Economics. Her work often combines different ways of looking at the past.

About Her 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. She then earned her doctorate degree at the University of Cambridge. Her research focused on the Tory Party in the 1700s.

After her doctorate, she became a Research Fellow at Girton College, Cambridge. She also taught history at Newnham College, Cambridge and King's College, Cambridge. In 1979, she made history herself. She became the first woman Fellow at Christ's College, Cambridge. She is now an Honorary Fellow there.

Her Work as a Historian

Linda Colley has written many important books. Her 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.

Her book Britons: Forging the Nation 1707–1837 (1992) is very famous. It won the Wolfson History Prize. This book explores how people in England, Scotland, and Wales began to see themselves as "British." It covers the 18th and early 19th centuries.

In 1998, Colley became a professor at the London School of Economics. For five years, she researched 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. It used stories of captivity to show the challenges and weaknesses of the British Empire.

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

In 2014, before the Scottish independence referendum, she gave fifteen talks on BBC Radio 4. These talks were about how the United Kingdom was formed and how it sometimes faced divisions. These talks were later published as 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 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.

Linda Colley has received many honors for her work. In 1999, she was elected 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, and in 2022, she was made a DBE. These are high honors for her contributions to history. She also holds seven honorary degrees from different universities.

She sometimes writes articles for newspapers and magazines like the London Guardian and the New York Review of Books.

Her 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 Recognitions

Linda Colley has received many awards and honors throughout her career.

• She was appointed 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 for her services to history.
• She received the Wolfson History Prize in 1993.
• She was awarded a Guggenheim Memorial Fellowship in 2017.
• She has received honorary degrees from several universities, including University of Oxford (2021), Queen's University Belfast (2019), University of Hull (2012), University of Bristol (2006), University of East Anglia (2005), and University of Essex (2004).
• She was elected a Fellow of the British Academy in 1999.
• She became a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature in 1999.
• She became a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society in 1988.