Lewis Henry Gann

Background

Gann was born in Mainz, Germany into a German Jewish family and was originally named Ludwig Hermann Ganz. In 1938, his family successfully escaped from Nazi anti-Semitic persecution and settled in the United Kingdom.

Education

Gann was educated at Carlisle Grammar School in northern England. After the war, Gann joined the University of Oxford and gained a Bachelor of Arts degree in Modern History from Balliol College, Oxford in 1950. He continued his studies at Oxford and gained a masters and doctorate in 1967.

Career

After graduating, Gann travelled to Central Africa where he took a research post at the Rhodes-Livingstone Institute in Northern Rhodesia (now Zambia). He also worked at the University of Manchester from 1952 to 1954. In 1954, he emigrated to Southern Rhodesia after being offered a post at the National Archives of Rhodesia. Gann emigrated to the United States in 1963 where he took up a position at the Hoover Institution Library and Archives in Stanford University as curator of the Institute's African and European collections.

During the course of his academic career, Gann had written or edited 38 books and academic monographs, mainly on the subject of African history and political science. He produced a number of important works in collaboration with Peter Duignan.

Achievements

• During the course of his academic career, Gann had written or edited 38 books and academic monographs, mainly on the subject of African history and political science. He produced a number of important works in collaboration with Peter Duignan.

Works

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• book

  • Hope for South Africa? (Hoover Institution Press Publication)

    (In this book the authors examine the the country's power ...)

    1991
  • Africa and the World: An Introduction to the History of Sub-Saharan Africa from Antiquity to 1840

    (First published in 1972, Africa and the World places the ...)

    1972
  • Burden of Empire: An Appraisal of Western Colonialism in Africa South of the Sahara (Hoover Inst Press Publication)

    (Since its publication in 1967, Burden of Empire has been ...)

    1967
  • White Settlers in Tropical Africa.

    (Two historians give the essential facts about the settlem...)

    1977
  • The Rebirth of the West: The Americanization of the Democratic World, 1945-1958

    (When World War II ended, Europe lay prostrate. Millions h...)

    1991
  • The Rulers of British Africa, 1870-1914 (Hoover Institution publications)

    (.)

    1978

Membership

• Royal Historical Society , United Kingdom