John Klier
John Klier | |
---|---|
Born | University of Illinois |
Academic work | |
Institutions | University College London |
John Doyle Klier (13 December 1944 – 23 September 2007) was a British-American historian of Russian Jewry and a pivotal figure in academic Jewish studies and East European history in the UK and beyond. At the end of his career and life, Klier was the Sidney and Elizabeth Corob Professor of Modern Jewish History at University College London.[1] He was a historian who challenged scholarly opinion on the Jewish community under the Tsars.
Early life and university
Klier was born in 1944 in
Work in Russia
In 1991 he was one of the first foreign scholars to undertake in-depth research on the Jews in Soviet archives, and mined resources in the coming years in
At UCL
Klier headed the Hebrew and Jewish Studies department at UCL during much of the 1990s, until his death.[1] The John Klier Memorial Library is maintained at the Department in his memory. Klier was an editor of East European Jewish Affairs, a member of the Academic Council of the International Center for Russian and East European Jewish Studies in Moscow, and of the Institute for Polish-Jewish Studies.[2]
Personal life
Klier was devoted to his wife Helen Mingay and their two children, Sophia and Sebastian. He died of cancer at the age of 62[3] and is survived by family members in Upstate New York and the UK. Klier was an expert in many national literatures – which he preferred to read in their original language. He was also a skilled fencer.[1]
Bibliography
- Perspectives on the 1881-1882 pogroms in Russia. Pittsburgh, Forbes Quadrangle, 1984, with Alexander Orbach.
- Russia gathers her Jews: The origins of the "Jewish question" in Russia, 1772-1825. Northern Illinois University Press, 1986.
- Pogroms: anti-Jewish violence in modern Russian history, with Shlomo Lambroza, 1992.
- Imperial Russia's Jewish question, 1855-1881. Cambridge and New York, Cambridge University Press, 1995.
- The quest for Anastasia: Solving the mystery of the lost Romanovs. Secaucus, N.J., Carol Publishing Group, 1997, with his wife Helen Mingay.
- Russians, Jews, and the Pogroms of 1881-1882. Cambridge and New York, Cambridge University Press, 2011.
References
- ^ a b c d Obituary by Michael Berkowitz, UCL, accessed 29 June 2017
- ^ a b Anthony Polonsky, "Professor John Klier", The Independent, September 23, 2007, accessed 29 June 2017.
- ^ "Obituary: John Klier". The Guardian.