Brian M. Fagan
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Brian M. Fagan | |
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Born | Brian Murray Fagan 1 August 1936 |
Nationality | British |
Academic background | |
Education | Rugby School |
Alma mater | Pembroke College, Cambridge |
Academic work | |
Discipline | Archaeology |
Sub-discipline | |
Institutions | |
Website | brianfagan |
Brian Murray Fagan (born 1 August 1936
Biography
Fagan was born in England where he received his childhood education at
Academic career
Fagan was Visiting Associate Professor of Anthropology at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, in 1966/67, and was appointed Professor of Anthropology at the University of California, Santa Barbara, in 1967.[3]
Fagan is an archaeological generalist, with expertise in the broad issues of human prehistory. He is the author or editor of 46 books, including seven widely used undergraduate college texts. Fagan has contributed over 100 specialist papers to many national and international journals. He is a Contributing Editor to Archaeology Worldwide,
Unlike most scholars at research universities, Fagan chose to regularly teach large introductory archaeology classes to undergraduates at Santa Barbara. Avoiding traditional lecture formats, he experimented with technology to provide basic information as early as the 1970s, leaving his class periods for wide ranging discussions of interest to students.
In conjunction with this interest in college teaching, Fagan began writing an extensive series of archaeology textbooks beginning in 1972 that are still in print in recent editions decades after their initial publication. These include In the Beginning (13th edition, 2013, with Nadia Durrani), People of the Earth (15th edition, 2018, with Nadia Durrani), Ancient North America (5th edition, 2019), Ancient Lives (7th edition, 2020, with Nadia Durrani), World Prehistory (9th edition, 2016, with Nadia Durrani), Ancient Civilizations (4th edition, 2016, with Chris Scarre), and Archaeology: A Brief Introduction (12th edition, 2016, with Nadia Durrani).
Fagan has been an archaeological consultant for many organisations, including
In addition to extensive experience with the development of
Over the years, Fagan has written a series of well-known textbooks that provide accurate summaries of the latest advances in archaeological method and theory and world prehistory. These are designed for beginners and avoid both confusing jargon and major theoretical discussion, which is inappropriate at this basic level. His approach melds traditional cultural history with more recent approaches, with a major emphasis on writing historical narrative using archaeological data and sources from other disciplines.
Fagan is also well known for his public lectures on a wide variety of archaeological and historical topics, delivered to a broad range of archaeological and non-archaeological audiences. He has written many critiques of contemporary archaeology and has advocated non-traditional approaches, as well as writing extensively on the role of archaeology in contemporary society. His approach is a melding of different theoretical approaches, which focuses on the broad issues of human prehistory and the past. He is a strong advocate of multidisciplinary approaches to such issues as climate change in the past.
Personal life
An avid sailor since childhood, Fagan wrote sailing guides to many locations on the Pacific coast of the United States and published them under his own imprint. Now retired from UC Santa Barbara, he lives in the Santa Barbara area with his wife, one of his two daughters, and numerous cats and rabbits.
Bibliography
- Southern Africa during the Iron Age. London: Thames and Hudson, 1965.
- The Rape of the Nile: Tomb Robbers, Tourists, and Archaeologists in Egypt. New York: ISBN 0-8133-4061-6).
- Quest for the Past: Great Discoveries in Archaeology. Boston: ISBN 0-201-03111-6). (Second Edition published Long Grove, IL: Waveland Press, 1994)
- The Aztecs. W. H. Freeman and Company, 1984 (paperback, ISBN 0-7167-1585-6).
- Clash of Cultures. New York: ISBN 0-7619-9145-X).
- ISBN 0-87044-603-7)
- The Great Journey: The Peopling of Ancient America. London: ISBN 0-8130-2756-X).
- Cruising Guide to California Channel Islands, Western Marine Enterprises, 1989 (paperback, ISBN 978-0930030322).
- Journey from Eden: The Peopling of Our World. London: Thames & Hudson, 1991 (hardcover, ISBN 0-500-05057-0).
- Ancient North America: The Archeology of a Continent. London: Thames & Hudson, 1991 (softcover, ISBN 0-500-27606-4).
- Kingdoms of Gold, Kingdoms of Jade: The Americas Before Columbus. London: Thames & Hudson, 1991 (hardcover, ISBN 0-500-05062-7).
- Snapshots of the Past. Lanham, MD: AltaMira Press, 1995 (hardcover, ISBN 0-7619-9108-5).
- Time Detectives: How Scientists Use Technology to Recapture the Past. New York: ISBN 0-684-81828-0).
- (editor) The ISBN 0-19-507618-4).
- (editor) Eyewitness to Discovery: First-Person Accounts of More Than Fifty of the World's Greatest Archaeological Discoveries. New York: Oxford University Press (USA), 1997 (hardcover, ISBN 0-19-512651-3).
- Floods, Famines, and Emperors: ISBN 0-7126-6478-5)
- (editor) The Seventy Great Mysteries of the Ancient World: Unlocking the Secrets of Past Civilizations. London: Thames & Hudson, 2001 (paperback, ISBN 0-500-51050-4).
- The Cruising Guide to Central and Southern California: Golden Gate to Ensenada, Mexico, Including the Offshore Islands International Marine/Ragged Mountain Press, 2001 (paperback, ISBN 978-0071374644).
- The Little Ice Age: How Climate Made History, 1300–1850. New York: Basic Books, 2000 (hardcover, ISBN 0-465-02272-3).
- ISBN 0-19-514314-0).
- Archaeologists: Explorers of the Human Past. New York: Oxford University Press (USA), 2003 (hardcover, ISBN 0-19-511946-0).
- Before California: An Archaeologist Looks at Our Earliest Inhabitants. Lanham, MD: ISBN 0-7591-0374-7).
- ISBN 0-8133-4113-2).
- Human Prehistory and the First Civilizations (2003) The Great Courses.
- The Long Summer: How Climate Changed Civilization. New York: Basic Books, 2003 (hardcover, ISBN 0-465-02282-0).
- A Brief History of Archaeology: Classical Times to the Twenty-First Century. Upper Saddle River, NJ: ISBN 0-13-177698-3).
- (editor) The Seventy Great Inventions of the Ancient World. London: Thames & Hudson, 2004 (hardcover, ISBN 0-500-05130-5).
- ISBN 0-19-517043-1).
- Writing Archaeology: Telling Stories About the Past. Walnut Creek, CA: Left Coast Press, 2005 (hardcover, ISBN 1-59874-005-9).
- From Stonehenge to Samarkand: An Anthology of Archaeological Travel Writing. New York: Oxford University Press (USA), 2006 (hardcover, ISBN 0-19-516091-6).
- Fish on Friday: Feasting, Fasting, And Discovery of the New World. New York: Basic Books, 2007 (hardcover, ISBN 0-465-02285-5).
- The Great Warming: Climate Change and the Rise and Fall of Civilizations. New York: ISBN 978-1-59691-392-9).
- Cro-Magnon: How the Ice Age Gave Birth to the First Modern Humans. New York: Bloomsbury Press, 2010 (hardcover, ISBN 978-1-59691-582-4).
- Elixir: A Human History of Water. New York: Bloomsbury Press, 2011 (hardcover, ISBN 978-1-4088-1573-1).
- The Attacking Ocean: The Past, Present, and Future of Rising Sea Levels. New York: Bloomsbury Press, 2013 ISBN 978-1-60819-692-0.
- A Brief History of Archaeology: Classical Times to the Twenty-First Century (2017, with Nadia Durrani) Routledge
- In the Beginning (14th edition, 2020, with Nadia Durrani), Routledge
- People of the Earth (15th edition, 2018, with Nadia Durrani), Routledge
- Ancient North America (5th edition, 2019), Thames & Hudson
- Ancient Lives (7th edition, 2020, with Nadia Durrani), Routledge
- World Prehistory (9th edition, 2019, with Nadia Durrani), Routledge
- Ancient Civilizations (4th edition, 2016, with Chris Scarre), Routledge
- Archaeology: A Brief Introduction (12th edition, 2016, with Nadia Durrani), Routledge
- What We Did in Bed: A Horizontal History (2019, with Nadia Durrani) Yale University Press
- Bigger Than History: Why Archaeology Matters (2019, with Nadia Durrani) Thames and Hudson
- Climate Chaos: Lessons on Survival from our Ancestors (2021, with Nadia Durrani) Hachette
- World Prehistory: The Basics (2021, with Nadia Durrani) Routledge
- Archaeology: The Basics (2022, with Nadia Durrani) Routledge
Further reading
- Fagan, Brian. "Retrospect (But certainly not a necrology!)", Antiquity, Vol. 78, Issue 299. (2004), pp. 173–183.
External links
- "Brian Murray Fagan". Archived from the original on 28 May 2010. Retrieved 1 October 2006. at the EMuseum of the Minnesota State University, Mankato
- "Interview". Archived from the original on 20 October 2007. Retrieved 1 October 2006.
{{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link) with Brian Fagan at the Society for California Archaeology - Audio interview with National Review Online
- Brian Fagan books online
- Cro-Magnon: How the Ice Age Gave Birth to the First Modern Humans lecture at the Linda Hall Library, 29 March 2012
References
- ^ "Brian M. Fagan". Archived from the original on 3 March 2016. Retrieved 25 May 2012.
- ^ "Some Iron Age cultures of the Southern Province, Northern Rhodesia, with special reference to the Kalomo Culture / Brian Murray Fagan". idiscover.lib.cam.ac.uk. Retrieved 30 August 2022.
- ^ "About Brian Fagan". Brian Fagan. Retrieved 18 February 2013.
- ^ "Archaeology Worldwide | Home". ArchaeologyWorldwide. Retrieved 17 March 2022.