{{short description|American historian and author}} {{Infobox academic | name = Jonathan Schneer | birth_date = {{birth date and age|1948|8|9}} | birth_place = New York City, New York, U.S. | occupation = | parents = | education = McGill University (BA)<br>Columbia University (PhD) | doctoral_advisor = Stephen Koss | era = | discipline = Historian | sub_discipline = Modern Britain | workplaces = Yale University<br>Georgia Institute of Technology, Professor Emeritus | spouse = {{marriage|Margaret Hayman|1980}} | children = 2 }}
'''Jonathan Schneer''' (born August 9, 1948) is an American historian of modern Britain whose work ranges over labor, political, social, cultural, and diplomatic subjects. He is a professor emeritus at the Georgia Institute of Technology.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.iac.gatech.edu/people/faculty/schneer |title = Jonathan Schneer, Ph.D.|access-date=2020-06-28}}</ref> In addition to writing numerous scholarly and popular books, he has written for such publications as ''The Washington Post'', ''The New York Times'', ''The Wall Street Journal'', ''The Atlanta Journal and Constitution'', and ''Foreign Policy''.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://foreignpolicy.com/author/jonathan-schneer/ |title = Jonathan Schneer|access-date=2020-06-28}}</ref> His work has been translated into Russian, Estonian, German, Chinese, and Turkish. He has appeared often on American, Canadian, and British media. He has lectured in six countries.
== Early life and education == Jonathan Schneer was born on August 9, 1948, in New York City. His father, Richard Schneer (1919–2004), was a dentist with a practice in New York City, who retired to Berkshire County in northwestern Massachusetts, where he devoted himself to progressive causes.<ref>{{cite web | url= https://www.legacy.com/obituaries/berkshire/obituary.aspx?n=richard-m-schneer&pid=2703808 |title = Richard M. Schneer| website=Legacy.com |access-date=2020-07-02}}</ref> His mother, Sophie Solomonoff Schneer (1920–2009), was a modern dancer in New York City, who became a choreographer and school teacher in Williamstown, Massachusetts.<ref>{{ cite web | url=https://www.iberkshires.com/obituaries/9037/SophieSchneer89.html |title = In Memoriam, Sophie Schneer, 89 |access-date=2020-07-02}}</ref> He has one sister, Deborah Schneer, a photographer.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.deborahschneerimages.com|title=D.L.Schneer Fine Art Photography|access-date=2020-07-02}}</ref>
Schneer spent his first twelve years in New York City, where he attended the Little Red School House. He attended Mt. Greylock Regional High School in Williamstown, Massachusetts, from which he graduated in 1966. He earned his B.A. with honors in history from McGill University in 1971, and his PhD from Columbia University in 1978, where Stephen Koss supervised his dissertation.
== Career == Schneer's first teaching post was at Boston College in 1976, initially as a teaching assistant for Peter Weiler, then as an Instructor. Yale University hired him as an assistant professor in 1979. He became a full professor at the Georgia Institute of Technology in 1989, where he taught until 2018. He was an early member of the editorial board of the ''Radical History Review'' and served as an editor for many years, including three as book review editor. His book, ''London 1900: The Imperial Metropolis'', opened his eyes to the possibility of writing for a broad audience. He has been trying to do that ever since, without sacrificing depth of scholarship.
== Personal life == In 1980, Schneer married Margaret Hayman, a lawyer. Upon moving from New Haven to Atlanta, she took a position as staff attorney with the Atlanta Legal Aid Society, from which she retired in 2019. They have two sons, Benjamin Hayman Schneer, an Assistant Professor of American Politics at the Harvard Kennedy School<ref>{{cite web|url= https://www.hks.harvard.edu/faculty/benjamin-schneer|title=Harvard Kennedy School, Benjamin Schneer|access-date=2020-07-03}}</ref> who is married to the journalist and writer Elizabeth Segran,<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.harpercollins.com/author/cr-133878/elizabeth-segran/|title=Harper Collins Publishers, Elizabeth Segran, Author|access-date=2020-07-03}}</ref> and Seth Hayman Schneer, an attorney in Washington, D.C., who specializes in health law, and whose wife, Jihyun Lee, is a South Korean diplomat.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://muckrack.com/seth-schneer|title=Seth Schneer|date=5 May 2020 |access-date=2022-08-22}}</ref> Schneer and his wife divide their time between Atlanta and Williamstown, Massachusetts.
== Honors and awards == Schneer has been a Whiting Fellow and a fellow of the American Council of Learned Societies.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.whiting.org/scholars/past-programs/search|title=Search Dissertation Fellows|access-date=2020-07-03}}</ref> In the UK, he has been a Beaufort Scholar at St. John’s College, Cambridge University,<ref>{{cite web|url= https://www.joh.cam.ac.uk/visiting-scholars-archive|title=St. John's College, University of Cambridge, Visiting Scholars Archive|access-date=2020-07-03}}</ref> a Christensen Visiting Fellow at St. Catherine’s College, Oxford University,<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.stcatz.ox.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/St-Catz-The-Year-2018-web-versionx.pdf|title=St Catherine's College - Oxford, The Year 2017-18|access-date=2020-07-03}}</ref> the Helen Cam Visiting Scholar at Girton College, Cambridge and, most recently, the Overbrook Visiting Fellow at University College, Oxford.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.girton.cam.ac.uk/directory/schneer-jonathan/|title=Girton College University of Cambridge, Professor Jonathan Schneer, Helen Cam Visiting Fellow|access-date=2020-07-03}}</ref>
''New Statesman'' and ''The Irish Times'' both chose ''The Balfour Declaration'' as a book of the year.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.newstatesman.com/non-fiction/2010/11/book-israel-jewish-160-arab|title=NewStatesman,Books of the year 2010,Geoffrey Wheatcroft|access-date=2020-07-03}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.irishtimes.com/culture/books/page-turners-the-books-we-loved-reading-in-2010-1.682741 |title=The Irish Times, Page Turners: the books we loved reading in 2010|newspaper=The Irish Times |access-date=2020-07-03}}</ref> That book also won a 2010 National Jewish Book Award.<ref>List of winners of the National Jewish Book Award</ref> His book, The Lockhart Plot: Love, Betrayal, Assassination and Counter-Revolution in Lenin’s Russia, was shortlisted for the 2021 Pushkin House Literary Prize. The ''BBC History Magazine'' listed both ''The Balfour Declaration'' and ''Ministers of War'' as a book of the month.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.iac.gatech.edu/news-events/stories/2015/5/ministers-war-named-book-month-bbc-history-magazine/405581 | title=''Ministers at War'' Named Book of the Month by BBC History Magazine | access-date=2020-07-03}}</ref>
== Books == * {{cite book |last = |first = |title = Ben Tillett: The Making and Unmaking of a British Labor Militant |publisher = University of Illinois Press |editor = |url = |year = 1981 |place = US |isbn = 978-1138331693 }} * {{cite book |last = |first = |title = Labour's Conscience: The Labour Left, 1945–1951 |publisher = Unwin Hyman |editor = |url = |year = 1988 |place = |isbn = 978-1138331761 }} * {{cite book |last = |first = |title = George Lansbury: A Life on the Left |publisher = University of Manchester |editor = |url = |year = 1990 |place = |isbn = 0-7190-2170-7 }} * {{cite book |last = |first = |title = London 1900: The Imperial Metropolis |publisher = Yale University Press |editor = |url = https://yalebooks.yale.edu/book/9780300089035/london-1900 |year = 1999 |place = |isbn = 978-0300076257 }} * {{cite book |last = |first = |title = The Thames: England's River |publisher = Yale University Press |editor = |url = https://yalebooks.yale.edu/book/9780300107869/thames |year = 2004 |place = |isbn = 978-0300107869 }} * {{cite book |last = |first = |title = The Balfour Declaration, The Origins of Arab-Israeli Conflict |publisher = Random House |editor = |url = http://www.randomhousebooks.com/books/162099/ |year = 2009 |place = |isbn = 978-1400065325 }} * {{cite book |last = |first = |title = Ministers at War: Winston Churchill's War Cabinet, 1940–45 |publisher = Basic Books |editor = |url = https://www.basicbooks.com/titles/jonathan-schneer/ministers-at-war/9780465040582/ |year = 2015 |place = |isbn = 978-1780746135 }} * {{cite book |last = |first = |title = The Lockhart Plot: Love, Murder, Betrayal and Counter-Revolution in Lenin's Russia |publisher = Oxford University Press |editor = |url = https://global.oup.com/academic/product/the-lockhart-plot-9780198852988?cc=us&lang=en& |year = 2020 |place = |isbn = 978-0198852988 }}
=== Co-edited books === * {{cite book |last1 = Schneer |first1 = Jonathan |last2 = Cronin |first2 = James |title = Social Conflict and the Political Order in Modern Britain |publisher = Croom Helm |url = |year = 1982 |place = |isbn = 978-0709907084 }} * {{cite book |last1 = Schneer |first1 = Jonathan |last2 = Abelove |first2 = Henry |last3 = Blackmar |first3 = Betsy |last4 = Dimmock |first4 = Peter |title = Visions of History |publisher = Pantheon |url = |year = 1983 |place = |isbn = 978-0394530468 }}
== References == {{Reflist}}
== External links == * {{C-SPAN|9276173}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Schneer, Jonathan}} Category:Historians of the British Isles Category:1948 births Category:Academics from New York City Category:Writers from New York City Category:McGill University alumni Category:People from Williamstown, Massachusetts Category:Columbia University alumni Category:Yale University faculty Category:Georgia Tech faculty Category:Living people Category:Historians from New York (state) Category:Fellows of St John's College, Cambridge