Background

Richard Whatmore was born on February 19, 1968, in Newcastle upon Tyne, United Kingdom.

Education

In 1986-1989, Richard Whatmore attended the University of Cambridge. In 1995, he earned a Doctor of Philosophy from this University.

Career

Richard Whatmore is Professor of Modern History at the University of St Andrews and Co-Director of the Institute of Intellectual History. He came to St Andrews in 2013 from the University of Sussex, where he had been a Professor of Intellectual History and the History of Political Thought since 1993. His research and teaching cover the following topics: Early Modern and Modern Intellectual History (including Politics, International Relations, Political Economy and Religion); Theories of Empire, Democracy and War; Enlightenment and Revolution; Republican Diaspora; Small States and Failed States; Relations between Britain and Europe; Political Cartoons. In 2012, Richard Whatmore and the University of Sussex Ph.D. student Paul Myles launched a project devoted to understanding what inspired 18th Century political pamphleteer Thomas Paine to help bring about the United States' Independence.

A historian and lecturer at the University of Sussex, Richard Whatmore joined with colleagues Stefan Collini and Brian Young in editing and publishing British Intellectual History, 1750-1950, a two-volume collection of essays by historians in the Sussex School of Intellectual History. A loose term, largely rejected even by Collini in his introduction, the Sussex school "consists of openness to the attractions and advantages of a "thickly textured" sense of the intellectual past, in which the full range of ideas, idioms, and audiences that goes into making a piece of writing and its reputation are given proper consideration," according to David Runciman in the Times Higher Education Supplement. The twenty-two essays in these volumes address such topics as Edmund Gibbons' religious feelings, the Victorians' newfound admiration of Oliver Cromwell, and the growth of Adam Smith's reputation in the early nineteenth century.

The same year as British Intellectual History, 1750-1950 came out, Whatmore published Republicanism and the French Revolution: An Intellectual History of Jean-Baptiste Say's Political Economy. In addition to exploring Say's economic prescriptions, Whatmore delves into their intellectual root and ultimately into the entire background to French republicanism, which seemed to emerge so suddenly in 1791. Richard Whatmore's latest book is Terrorists, Anarchists, and Republicans. The Genevans and the Irish in time of Revolution, published in 2019.

Achievements

• Richard Whatmore has several books published. For a long time, he has taught at the University of Sussex, and now he is a professor at the University of St Andrews with a wide range of research interests.

Works

More photos

• book

  • What is Intellectual History?

    (Drawing on a wide range of historical examples, Richard W...)

    2015
  • Terrorists, Anarchists, and Republicans: The Genevans and the Irish in Time of Revolution

    (Terrorists, Anarchists, and Republicans shows how the mas...)

    2019
  • Philosophy, Rights and Natural Law: Essays in Honour of Knud Haakonssen

    (Over his long and illustrious career, Knud Haakonssen has...)

    2019
  • Against War and Empire: Geneva, Britain, and France in the Eighteenth Century

    (As Britain and France became more powerful during the eig...)

    2012
  • History, Religion, and Culture: British Intellectual History 1750-1950

    (These two volumes contain new essays by many of the leadi...)

    2000
  • Republicanism and the French Revolution: An Intellectual History of Jean-Baptiste Say's Political Economy

    (This book provides a new interpretation of political thou...)

    2000
  • A Companion to Intellectual History

    (A Companion to Intellectual History provides an in-depth ...)

    2015