Education Secretary may refer to:

• Cabinet Secretary for Education and Lifelong Learning, Scotland
• Secretary for Education (Hong Kong)
• Secretary of Public Education, Mexico
• Secretary of State for Education, United Kingdom
• United States Secretary of Education

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Arne Duncan
9th United States Secretary of Education
Incumbent
Assumed office January 21, 2009
President	Barack Obama
Deputy	Anthony Miller
Preceded by	Margaret Spellings
Superintendent of Chicago Public Schools
In office June 26, 2001 – January 21, 2009
Appointed by	Richard Daley
Preceded by	Paul Vallas
Succeeded by	Ron Huberman
Personal details
Born	(1964-11-06) November 6, 1964 (age 47) Chicago, Illinois, United States
Political party	Democratic Party
Alma mater	Harvard University

Arne Duncan (born November 6, 1964) is an American education administrator and currently United States Secretary of Education. Duncan previously served as CEO of the Chicago Public Schools.

Early years and personal life[link]

Duncan was raised in Hyde Park, a Chicago neighborhood encompassing the University of Chicago. He is the son of Susan Goodrich (née Morton) and Starkey Davis Duncan, Jr. His father was a psychology professor at the university and his mother runs the Sue Duncan Children's Center, an after-school program primarily serving African-American youth in the nearby Kenwood neighborhood. His ancestry includes Norwegian, Scottish, German, Swedish, and English; his great-great-great-grandfather was U.S. Representative Milo Goodrich.^[1] While growing up, Duncan spent much of his free time at his mother's center tutoring or playing with students there. Some of his childhood friends were John W. Rogers, Jr., CEO of Ariel Capital Management (now Ariel Investments) and founder of the Ariel Community Academy, Illinois State Senator Kwame Raoul, actor Michael Clarke Duncan, singer R. Kelly and award winning martial artist Michelle Gordon.^{[citation needed]}

Duncan after the 2012 State of the Union Address

Duncan attended the University of Chicago Laboratory Schools^[2] and later Harvard University, where he graduated magna cum laude in 1987 with a bachelor's degree in sociology. His senior thesis, for which he took a year's leave to do research in the Kenwood neighborhood, was entitled The values, aspirations and opportunities of the urban underclass.^[3]

While at Harvard, Duncan co-captained the varsity basketball team and was named a first team Academic All-American.^[2][4] From 1987 to 1991, Duncan played professional basketball, mostly in Australia, with teams including Melbourne's Eastside Spectres, of Australia's National Basketball League.^[5]

While in Australia, Duncan met his future wife, Karen Luann Duncan.^[6] They live in Arlington, Virginia. Their children, Claire and Ryan, attend public elementary school there.^[7]

In May 2012, he revealed he supports same-sex marriage.^[8][9]

Education career[link]

Duncan at 2009 Obama Home States Inauguration Ball

In 1992, childhood friend and investment banker John W. Rogers, Jr. appointed Duncan director of the Ariel Education Initiative, a program mentoring children at one of the city's worst-performing elementary schools and then assisting them as they proceeded further in the education system.^[3] After the school closed in 1996, Duncan and Rogers were instrumental in re-opening it as a charter school, Ariel Community Academy.^[10] In 1999, Duncan was appointed Deputy Chief of Staff for former Chicago Public Schools CEO Paul Vallas.^[11]

Chicago public schools CEO[link]

Mayor Richard M. Daley appointed Duncan to serve as Chief Executive Officer of the Chicago Public Schools on June 26, 2001.^[12] Opinions vary on Duncan's success as CEO; one prominent publication notes improved test scores and describes Duncan as a consensus builder,^[13] while another finds the improvements largely a myth and is troubled by the closing of neighborhood schools and their replacement by charter schools, and what it describes as schools' militarization.^[14]

Secretary of Education[link]

Duncan was appointed U.S. Secretary of Education by President Barack Obama and confirmed by the Senate on January 20, 2009.^[15] One of Duncan's well-known initiatives as secretary has been a $4 billion Race to the Top competition. It asks states to vie for federal education dollars by submitting proposals that include reforms such as expanding charter schools and judging teachers partly on how well their students do on standardized tests.^[16] Duncan sends his own children to public schools.^[15] In March 2011 Duncan said 82 percent of the nation’s public schools could be failing by next year under the standards of the No Child Left Behind law. The projection amounts to a startling spike from current data, which shows that 37 percent of schools are on track to miss targets set by the law. He said “Four out of five schools in America would not meet their goals under [No Child Left Behind] by next year,” Duncan said in his opening statement. “This is why we have to fix the law now. Nobody can support inaction and maintain the status quo.”^[17]

Criticism[link]

Teachers' unions, such as the National Education Association (NEA), have criticized the Obama Administration's embrace of charter schools as part of the Race to the Top. The NEA gave the Race to the Top a vote of "no confidence," and invited critic Diane Ravitch to speak at their 2010 meeting.^[18] In February 2012, Duncan was criticized for appearing publically on a panel with Michelle Rhee—former Washington D.C. Chancellor of Schools. The Office of the Inspector General of the Department of Education (the Department which Duncan heads) was, at that time, investigating whether D.C. schools had cheated to raise test scores during Rhee's tenure. On February 26, 2012, the New York Times quoted criticisms of Duncan by Richard L. Hyde, an investigator who exposed the large-scale test-score cheating that was endemic in Atlanta (Georgia) City Schools: “'I’m shocked that the secretary of education would be fraternizing with someone who could potentially be the target of the investigation,' [Hyde] said. 'The appearance of a conflict of interest is troubling because it can cause the public to lose faith in the investigation.'” ^[19]

References[link]

External links[link]

	Chicago portal
	Biography portal

Media related to Arne Duncan at Wikimedia Commons

• United States Department of Education bio
• The Sue Duncan Children's Center
• Arne Duncan at WhoRunsGov at The Washington Post
• Appearances on C-SPAN
• Arne Duncan on Charlie Rose
• Arne Duncan collected news and commentary at The New York Times
• Works by or about Arne Duncan in libraries (WorldCat catalog)

v t e United States Secretaries of Education Hufstedler Bell Bennett Cavazos Alexander Riley Paige Spellings Duncan

v t e Current members of the Cabinet of the United States Obama Biden Bryson Chu Clinton Donovan Duncan Geithner Holder Jacksonc Kirkc Kruegerc LaHood Lewc Millsc Napolitano Panetta Ricec Salazar Sebelius Solis Shinseki Vilsack Zientsca c - cabinet-level; a - acting

v t e Cabinet of President Barack Obama (since 2009)   Cabinet Secretary of State Hillary Clinton (2009–present) Secretary of the Treasury Timothy Geithner (2009–present) Secretary of Defense Robert Gates (2009–2011) Leon Panetta (2011–present) Attorney General Eric Holder (2009–present) Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar (2009–present) Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack (2009–present) Secretary of Commerce Gary Locke (2009–2011) John Bryson (2011–present) Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis (2009–present) Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius (2009–present) Secretary of Education Arne Duncan (2009–present) Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Shaun Donovan (2009–present) Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood (2009–present) Secretary of Energy Steven Chu (2009–present) Secretary of Veterans Affairs Eric Shinseki (2009–present) Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano (2009–present)   Cabinet-level Vice President Joe Biden (2009–present) White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel (2009–2010) William Daley (2011–2012) Jacob Lew (2012–present) Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency Lisa Jackson (2009–present) Director of the Office of Management and Budget Peter Orszag (2009–2010) Jacob Lew (2010–2012) Trade Representative Ron Kirk (2009–present) Ambassador to the United Nations Susan Rice (2009–present) Chair of the Council of Economic Advisers Christina Romer (2009–2010) Austan Goolsbee (2010–2011) Alan Krueger (2011–present) Director of the Central Intelligence Agency Leon Panetta (2009–2011) David Petraeus (2011–present) Administrator of the Small Business Administration Karen Mills (2012–present)* * took office in 2009, raised to cabinet-rank in 2012 See also: Confirmations of Barack Obama's Cabinet

The Right Honourable Michael Gove MP
Gove speaking at the Big Society policy launch, March 2010
Secretary of State for Education
Incumbent
Assumed office 12 May 2010
Prime Minister	David Cameron
Preceded by	Ed Balls (Children, Schools and Families)
Shadow Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families
In office 2 July 2007 – 11 May 2010
Leader	David Cameron
Preceded by	David Willetts
Succeeded by	Ed Balls (Education)
Member of Parliament for Surrey Heath
Incumbent
Assumed office 5 May 2005
Preceded by	Nick Hawkins
Majority	17,289 (31.8%)
Personal details
Born	(1967-08-26) 26 August 1967 (age 44) Edinburgh, Scotland
Political party	Conservative
Spouse(s)	Sarah Vine
Children	2
Alma mater	Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford
Occupation	Politician
Profession	Journalist
Religion	Anglican

Michael Andrew Gove (born 26 August 1967) is a British politician, who currently serves as the Secretary of State for Education and as the Conservative Party Member of Parliament (MP) for the Surrey Heath constituency. He is also an author and former Times journalist who remains on friendly terms with proprietor Rupert Murdoch.^[1]

Born in Edinburgh, Gove was raised in Aberdeen and made an early career as a journalist. He was first elected to parliament in the 2005 general election, as the MP for the safe Conservative seat of Surrey Heath in South East England. He was first promoted to the shadow cabinet in 2007 under David Cameron, as the Shadow Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families.

After the formation of the coalition government in 2010, Gove was appointed the Secretary of State for Education.

Early life and career outside Parliament[link]

Gove was born in Edinburgh. At four months old, he was adopted by a Labour-supporting family in Aberdeen, where he was brought up.^[2] His father ran a fish processing business; his mother was a lab assistant at the University of Aberdeen before working at the Aberdeen School for the Deaf.^[3]

He was initially state school educated in Aberdeen, later attending the independent Robert Gordon's College, to which he won a scholarship.^[2] From 1985 to 1988 he studied English at Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford,^[4] where he served as President of the Oxford Union.

Gove was a trainee reporter at the Press and Journal in Aberdeen, where he spent several months on strike in a dispute over union recognition and representation.^[5] He joined The Times in 1996 as a leader writer and has been its comment editor, news editor, Saturday editor and assistant editor. He has also written a weekly column on politics and current affairs for The Times and contributed to the Times Literary Supplement, Prospect magazine and The Spectator. He has also written a sympathetic biography of Michael Portillo and a critical study of the Northern Ireland peace process, The Price of Peace, for which he won the Charles Douglas-Home Prize.^[4] Gove was instrumental in the launch of the new centre-right magazine Standpoint, and serves on its advisory board.^{[citation needed]}

He has worked for the BBC's Today programme, On The Record, Scottish Television and the Channel 4 monologue programme A Stab In The Dark, alongside David Baddiel and Tracey MacLeod, and was a regular panellist on BBC Radio 4's The Moral Maze and Newsnight Review on BBC Two.^[3]

Gove was a member of the winning team in Grampian Television's quiz show Top Club,^{[citation needed]} and played the school chaplain in the 1995 family comedy A Feast at Midnight.^[6]

Political career[link]

Gove joined the Conservative Party at university and was secretary of Aberdeen South Young Conservatives.^{[citation needed]} He has helped to write speeches for Cabinet and Shadow Cabinet ministers, including Peter Lilley and Michael Howard.^{[citation needed]} When applying for a job at the Conservative Research Department he was told he was "insufficiently political" and "insufficiently Conservative", consequently he turned to journalism.^{[citation needed]}

Gove was previously chairman of Policy Exchange, a conservative think tank launched in 2002.^{[citation needed]}

Member of Parliament[link]

Gove entered Parliament in the 2005 general election as Conservative member for the safe seat of Surrey Heath.^{[citation needed]}

On 2 July 2007, he was promoted to the Shadow Cabinet as Shadow Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families (a new department set up by the Prime Minister Gordon Brown) shadowing Ed Balls, a key supporter of Brown^{[citation needed]}. Prior to the 2010 general election, most of his questions in House of Commons debates concerned children, schools and families, education, local government, Council Tax, Foreign Affairs, and the environment.^[7]

In 2008, in an attempt to split the Labour Party, Gove suggested that senior Blairites who might become isolated should their party move to the left following a general election defeat, could be offered a role in a future Conservative government.^[8]

Gove is seen as part of an influential set of young up-and-coming Tories, sometimes referred to as the 'Notting Hill Set', which includes David Cameron, George Osborne, Edward Vaizey, Nicholas Boles and Rachel Whetstone.^{[citation needed]} They are perceived as modernisers on social issues, and humanitarian interventionists in foreign policy. When Cameron was elected leader in December 2005, he appointed Gove the housing spokesman shadowing the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister.^{[citation needed]} Michael Portillo predicted that Gove will one day lead the Conservative party.^{[citation needed]}

Secretary of State for Education[link]

Gove is the current Secretary of State for Education. Following his appointment in May 2010, he rebranded his department,^[9] announced plans to convert schools rated as 'outstanding' by Ofsted into academies,^[10] and cut the previous Government's school building programme.^[11] He was forced to apologise, however, when the list of terminated school building projects he had released was found to be inaccurate.^[12]

In July 2010, Gove said that Labour had failed in its attempt to break the link between social class and school achievement despite spending billions of pounds. Quoting research, he indicated that by the age of 6, children of low ability from affluent homes were still out-performing brighter children from poor backgrounds. In a Commons Education Select Committee he said that this separation of achievement grew larger throughout pupils' school careers, stating, "In effect, rich thick kids do better than poor clever children when they arrive at school [and] the situation as they go through gets worse,".^[13]

During the 2010 Conservative Party Conference, Gove announced that school curriculum would be restructured, and that study of authors such as Byron, Keats, Jane Austen, Dickens and Thomas Hardy would be reintroduced to English lessons as part of a plan to improve children’s grasp of English literature and language. Children who fail to write coherently and grammatically, and who are weak in spelling, would be penalised under new examinations. Historian Simon Schama would give advice to government to ensure that pupils learnt Britain’s "island story". Standards in mathematics and science would also be strengthened. He explained that this was needed because left-wing ideologues had undermined education. Theirs was the view, he thought, that schools "shouldn’t be doing anything so old-fashioned as passing on knowledge, requiring children to work hard, or immersing them in anything like dates in history or times tables in mathematics. These ideologues may have been inspired by generous ideals but the result of their approach has been countless children condemned to a prison house of ignorance."^[14]

In a November 2010 White paper, Gove declared reforms would include the compulsory study of foreign languages up to the age of 16, and a shake-up of league tables in which schools are ranked higher for the number of pupils taking GCSEs in five core subjects: English; mathematics; science; a language; and one of the humanities. He also announced that experts such as historian Simon Schama will be brought in to review the curriculum, and that targets are to be introduced for primary schools for the first time. Additionally, trainee teachers will spend more time in the classroom, there would be more assessment of teacher training applicants—including tests of character and emotional intelligence—and former troops will be offered sponsorship to retrain as teachers to improve discipline. Teachers are also expected to receive guidance on how to search pupils for more items, including mobile phones and pornography, and when they can use force.^[15]

In December 2010, in an article in the Daily Telegraph, he claimed that "Like Chairman Mao, we’ve embarked on a Long March to reform our education system", apparently unaware that Mao's cultural revolution closed China's education system for ten years and led to the deaths of many teachers.^[16][17][18]

In February 2011 a judicial review deemed his decision to axe Building Schools for the Future (BSF) projects in six local authority areas was unlawful as he had failed to consult before imposing the cuts.^[19] The judge also said that in five of the cases, the failure was "so unfair as to amount to an abuse of power" and that "however pressing the economic problems, there was no overriding public interest which precluded consultation or justifies the lack of any consultation".^[19] The Government will have to reconsider but it said it had won the case on substantial issues.^[19]

In March 2011 Gove was criticised for not understanding the importance of school architecture and having previously misrepresented the cost.^[20] In February 2011, he gave "not-quite-true information to Parliament" by saying that one individual made £1m in one year when the true figure was £700k for 5 advisers at different times over a 4 year period.^[20] He told a Free Schools conference that 'no one in this room is here to make architects richer' and specifically mentioned architect Richard Rogers.^[21]

In April 2011 Gove criticised schools for not studying pre-20th century classics and blamed “England’s constricted and unreformed exam system” for failing to encourage children to read. Gove also blamed an “anti knowledge culture” for reducing achievement and said children benefited when expectations were set higher.^[22] In June 2011 his "ignorance of science" was criticised after he called for students to have "a rooting in the basic scientific principles" and by way of example assigned Lord Kelvin's laws of thermodynamics to Sir Isaac Newton.^[23]

In 2011 Gove planned to provide each school in the United Kingdom with a copy of the King James Bible, personally inscribed by him, to celebrate the 400th anniversary of its translation into English.^[24][25] The project ran into difficulty when the education secretary was required to find private funding to complete it.^[24][25] The cost of the project was reported as being £337,000.^[25] It was reported that the Bibles were to remain in overseas storage until private funding was found to support the books' distribution.^[24][25]

In May 2012 Gove, giving evidence to the Leveson Inquiry warned Lord Justice Leveson "the cure might be worse than the disease", advising the judge against too much extra regulation on the press. The former journalist, added that some cases of press misbehaviour were “deplorable” but argued that these could be punished under existing laws, such as defamation.^[26]

Expenses claims[link]

Michael Gove claimed £7,000 for furnishing a London property before reportedly 'flipping' his designated second home to a house in his constituency, a property for which he claimed around £13,000 to cover stamp duty.^[27] Gove also claimed for a cot mattress, despite children's items being banned under the Commons rule. Gove said he would repay the claim for the cot mattress, but maintained that his other claims were "below the acceptable threshold costs for furniture" and that moving house was necessary "to effectively discharge my parliamentary duties".^[27] While he was moving between homes, on one occasion he stayed at the Pennyhill Park Hotel and Spa following a constituency engagement, charging the taxpayer more than £500 per night's stay.^[27]

Political views[link]

Unionism[link]

Michael Gove is a Scot who believes that Scotland should remain part of the United Kingdom because Scotland's strengths complement those of other parts of the UK.^[28]

Liberty[link]

Gove has expressed views that the state should not generally interfere in domestic affairs. He purported to campaign for personal freedom in certain matters, opposing the introduction of ID cards under the Identity Cards Act 2006, and wrote that "Section 28 is a nonsense", a reference to an enactment that prevented local authorities from providing funding for the positive portrayal of homosexuality, indicating a willingness to permit the expansion of the role of the state.^[29] He shared a flat with Conservative Ivan Massow who later defected to Labour over Section 28 and Nicholas Boles, and said "The only sustainable ethical foundation for society is a belief in the innate worth and dignity of every individual."^[30]

Giving evidence before the Leveson Inquiry in May 2012, Gove said he was "unashamedly on the side of those who say that we should think very carefully before legislation and regulation because the cry 'Something must be done' often leads to people doing something which isn't always wise."^[31]

Education[link]

As Shadow Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families, he advocated the introduction of a Swedish-style voucher system, whereby parents can choose where their child should be educated, with the state paying what they would have cost in a state-school. He has also advocated Swedish style "free schools", to be managed by parents and funded by the state,^[32] with the possibility that such schools may be allowed to be run on a for-profit model.^[33]

Foreign policy[link]

Considered by some to be a British neo-conservative,^[34] he called for early intervention against Saddam Hussein and stated in October 2004 of Tony Blair: "I can't hold it back any more; I love Tony!" He is a signatory of the Henry Jackson Society, which advocates an active approach to the spread of democracy, and an adviser to the Atlantic Bridge, which works to affirm the Transatlantic alliance.

He was a proponent of the view that the invasion of Iraq would bring peace and democracy both to Iraq and the wider Middle East. In December 2008 Gove wrote that declarations of either victory or defeat in Iraq in 2003 were premature, and with the benefit of hindsight "The liberation of Iraq has actually been that rarest of things – a proper British foreign policy success. Next year, while the world goes into recession, Iraq is likely to enjoy 10% GDP growth. Alone in the Arab Middle East, it is now a fully functioning democracy with a free press, properly contested elections and an independent judiciary ... Sunni and Shia contend for power in parliament, not in street battles. The ingenuity, idealism and intelligence of the Iraqi people can now find an outlet in a free society rather than being deployed, as they were for decades, simply to ensure survival in a fascist republic that stank of fear."^[35] Michael Gove has described himself as "a proud Zionist", ^[36] and supports the United Jewish Israel Appeal's fundraising activities.^[37]

He has been accused of harbouring hostile attitude towards Islam and Muslims after his book Celsius 7/7,^[38] despite distinguishing between 'the great historical faith' of Islam which he claims has 'brought spiritual nourishment to millions', and Islamism, a 'totalitarian ideolog[y]' which turns to 'hellish violence and oppression' like the 20th century ideologies of National Socialism and Communism.^[39]

He has mourned the First World War as a great tragedy, in which not only did millions die, but the old, largely liberal, tolerant and materially progressive order perished.^[40]

Political philosophy[link]

During the 2008 Conservative Party Conference, he argued that Edmund Burke (a philosopher who commented on organic society and the French Revolution) was the greatest conservative ever.

Asked about those who believe 'Marx was right all along', he argued that Marxists were guilty of ignoring the systematic abuses and poverty of centrally planned economies, and criticised Eric Hobsbawm, saying that "only when Hobsbawm weeps hot tears for a life spent serving an ideology of wickedness will he ever be worth listening to."^[41]

Haves and have yachts[link]

In January 2012, Mr Gove's ideas for a new Royal Yacht costing £60m were made public.^[42] Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg called the idea “a case of the haves and the have yachts".^[43]

Personal life[link]

Gove is married to Sarah Vine, a writer on The Times;^[44] they have a daughter and son.^[45] Having been raised in the Church of Scotland, he now worships in the Church of England, and regularly attends St Mary Abbots^[46] church, Kensington, London.

His wealth is estimated at £1 million.^[47][48] Gove is a Queens Park Rangers F.C supporter.^[49]

Bibliography[link]

• Michael Portillo: The Future of the Right (1995) ISBN 1-85702-335-8
• The Price of Peace (2000) ISBN 1-903219-15-9
• A Blue Tomorrow – New Visions for Modern Conservatives (2001) (ed. with Edward Vaizey and Nicholas Boles) ISBN 1-84275-027-5
• Celsius 7/7 (2006) ISBN 0-297-85146-2

Notes[link]

External links[link]

• Michael Gove MP Official Website
• Profile at the Conservative Party
• Column archives in The Times
• Profile from The Economist
• Profile at Parliament of the United Kingdom
• Contributions in Parliament at Hansard 1803–2005
• Current session contributions in Parliament at Hansard
• Electoral history and profile at The Guardian
• Voting record at PublicWhip.org
• Record in Parliament at TheyWorkForYou.com
• Profile at Westminster Parliamentary Record
• Profile at BBC News Democracy Live
• Articles authored at Journalisted

v t e Cameron cabinet (list) Cameron · Clegg Alexander · Cable · Clarke · Davey · Duncan Smith · Gillan · Gove · Greening · Hague · Hammond · Hunt · Lansley · May · Mitchell · Moore · Osborne · Paterson · Pickles · Spelman · Strathclyde · Warsi Also attending: Letwin · Maude · McLoughlin · Willetts · Young When on agenda: Grieve Conservative – Liberal Democrat Coalition Agreement · Coalition government

Bill Evers (born January 29, 1954 in New Port Richey, Florida) is a former bench coach for the Tampa Bay Devil Rays.

He received his BA in management and recreation from Eckerd College in St. Petersburg, Florida in 1976.[1]

During his career in professional baseball, he hit 11 home runs in 274 games, walked 161 times in four years, and struck out 113 times. In 2005, he was named the Tampa Bay Devil Rays bench coach. Evers has compiled a 1,381-1,206 (.534) record, which is the second most wins among active minor league managers. He has won five minor league championships and has managed three of the Rays' five minor league championship teams.[2]

Evers will not be returning for the 2008 season; he will be replaced by former Devil Ray player Dave Martinez.

External links[link]

• Retrosheet

This biographical article relating to an American baseball manager or coach is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. v t e

Niall Ferguson
Niall Ferguson at the 40. St. Gallen Symposium in May 2010
Born	(1964-04-18) 18 April 1964 (age 48) Glasgow, Scotland
Nationality	British
Fields	International history, economic history, American and British imperial history
Institutions	Harvard University
Alma mater	Magdalen College, Oxford
Known for	Counterfactual history Economic history History of empire and imperialism
Influences	Thomas Hobbes, Norman Stone, A. J. P. Taylor, Kenneth Clark, Adam Smith, Karl Marx, John Maynard Keynes, David Landes
Spouse	Ayaan Hirsi Ali (m. 2011) «start: (2011-09)»"Marriage: Ayaan Hirsi Ali to Niall Ferguson" Location: (linkback:http://en-wiki.pop.wn.com/index.php/Niall_Ferguson)

Niall Campbell Douglas Ferguson (born 18 April 1964)^[1] is a British historian. His speciality is financial and economic history, particularly hyperinflation and the bond markets, as well as the history of colonialism.^[2]

Ferguson, who was born in Glasgow, is the Laurence A. Tisch Professor of History at Harvard University^[1]. He was educated at the private Glasgow Academy in Scotland, and at Magdalen College, Oxford.

Ferguson's books include Empire: How Britain Made the Modern World, The Ascent of Money: A Financial History of the World and Civilization: The West and the Rest,^[3] all of which he has also presented as Channel 4 television series.

In 2004 he was named as one of the 100 most influential people in the world by Time magazine. He is currently^[when?] a contributing editor for Bloomberg Television and a columnist for Newsweek. He is currently^[when?] working on the official biography of Henry Kissinger to whom he has been granted unprecedented access.

Early life[link]

Ferguson was born the son of a doctor father and a physics teacher mother in Glasgow on 18 April 1964, and lived for a time near Ibrox Park.^[4][5] He attended The Glasgow Academy.^{[citation needed]}

Ferguson cites his father as instilling in him a strong sense of self-discipline and of the moral value of work, while his mother encouraged his creative side.^[6] His journalist maternal grandfather encouraged him to write.^[6] Unable to decide on studying an English or a History degree at university, Ferguson cites his reading of War and Peace as persuading him towards History.^[5] Of late 1970s Glasgow, Ferguson describes "the main industries" of the city as "sectarianism and strike action".^[5] He was brought up as and remains an atheist although he holds that the Ten Commandments remains a solid ethical code by which to live.^[7]

University of Oxford[link]

Ferguson received a Demyship (half-scholarship) at Magdalen College, Oxford, graduating with a first-class honours degree in History in 1985.^[8] While at Oxford he became best friends with Andrew Sullivan based on a shared love of right-wing politics and punk music.^[9] He became a Thatcherite by 1982, identifying the position with "the Sex Pistols' position in 1977: it was a rebellion against the stuffy corporatism of the 70s."^[5] While at university "He was very much a Scot on the make...Niall was a witty, belligerent bloke who seemed to have come from an entirely different planet," according to Simon Winder.^[9] Ferguson has stated that "I was surrounded by insufferable Etonians with fake Cockney accents who imagined themselves to be working-class heroes in solidarity with the striking miners. It wasn't long before it became clear that the really funny and interesting people on campus were Thatcherites."^[9]

Regarding slights and criticism, Ferguson has stated: "Nobody should ever imagine that they can do that kind of thing to me with impunity. Life is long, and revenge is a dish that tastes best cold. I'm very unforgiving."^[10]

Career[link]

Academic career[link]

• 1983-1986 M.A. (Hons.) Magdalen College, Oxford
• 1987–88 Hanseatic Scholar, Hamburg and Berlin
• 1989–90 Research Fellow, Christ’s College, University of Cambridge
• 1990–92 Official Fellow and Lecturer, Peterhouse, University of Cambridge
• 1992–2000 Fellow and Tutor in Modern History, Jesus College, University of Oxford
• 2000–02 Professor of Political and Financial History, University of Oxford
• 2002–04 John Herzog Professor in Financial History at Stern School of Business, New York University
• 2004-continuing Laurence A. Tisch Professor of History, Harvard University and William Ziegler Professor of Business Administration at the Harvard Business School
• 2010-11 Philippe Roman Chair in History and International Affairs at the London School of Economics, located within LSE IDEAS, beginning in 2010^[11]

Ferguson is a Senior Research Fellow of Jesus College, University of Oxford and a Senior Fellow of the Hoover Institution, Stanford University. He is a resident faculty member of the Minda de Gunzburg Center for European Studies, and an advisory fellow of the Barsanti Military History Center at the University of North Texas.

In May 2010 he announced that Education Secretary Michael Gove in the UK's Conservative/Lib Dem government had invited him to advise on the development of a new history syllabus—"history as a connected narrative"— for schools in England and Wales.^[2][12] In June 2011 it was announced that he would join the professoriate of New College of the Humanities, a private college in London.^[13]

Business career[link]

In 2007, Ferguson was appointed as an Investment Management Consultant by GLG Partners, focusing on geopolitical risk as well as current structural issues in economic behaviour relating to investment decisions.^[14] GLG is a UK-based hedge fund management firm headed by Noam Gottesman.^[15]

Career as commentator[link]

In October 2007, Niall Ferguson left The Sunday Telegraph to join the Financial Times,^[16] where he is now^[when?] a contributing editor.^[17] He also writes for Newsweek.^[2]

Ferguson has often described the European Union as a disaster waiting to happen,^[18] and has criticised President Vladimir Putin of Russia for authoritarianism. In Ferguson's view, certain of Putin's policies, if they continue, may stand to lead Russia to catastrophes equivalent to those that befell Germany during the Nazi era.^[19]

Interests and views[link]

World War I[link]

In 1998 Ferguson published the critically acclaimed The Pity of War: Explaining World War One, which with the help of research assistants he was able to write in just five months.^[8][9] This is an analytic account of what Ferguson considered to be the ten great myths of the Great War. The book generated much controversy, particularly Ferguson's suggestion that it might have proved more beneficial for Europe if Britain had stayed out of the First World War in 1914, thereby allowing Germany to win.^[20] Ferguson has argued that the British decision to intervene was what stopped a German victory in 1914–15. Furthermore, Ferguson expressed disagreement with the Sonderweg interpretation of German history championed by some German historians such as Fritz Fischer, Hans-Ulrich Wehler, Hans Mommsen and Wolfgang Mommsen, who argued that the German Empire deliberately started an aggressive war in 1914. Likewise, Ferguson has often attacked the work of the German historian Michael Stürmer, who argued that it was Germany's geographical situation in Central Europe that determined the course of German history.

On the contrary, Ferguson maintained that Germany waged a preventive war in 1914, a war largely forced on the Germans by reckless and irresponsible British diplomacy. In particular, Ferguson accused the British Foreign Secretary Sir Edward Grey of maintaining an ambiguous attitude to the question of whether Britain would enter the war or not, and thus confusing Berlin over just what was the British attitude towards the question of intervention in the war.^[21] Ferguson accused London of unnecessarily allowing a regional war in Europe to escalate into a world war. Moreover, Ferguson denied that the origins of National Socialism could be traced back to Imperial Germany; instead Ferguson asserted the origins of Nazism could only be traced back to the First World War and its aftermath.

The “myths” of World War I that Ferguson attacked (with his counter-arguments in parentheses), are:

• That Germany was a highly militarist country before 1914 (Ferguson claims Germany was Europe’s most anti-militarist country)^[22]
• That naval challenges mounted by Germany drove Britain into informal alliances with France and Russia before 1914 (Ferguson claims the British were driven into alliances with France and Russia as a form of appeasement due to the strength of those nations, and an Anglo-German alliance failed to materialize due to German weakness)^[23]
• That British foreign policy was driven by legitimate fears of Germany (Ferguson claims Germany posed no threat to Britain before 1914, and that all British fears of Germany were due to irrational anti-German prejudices) ^[24]
• That the pre-1914 arms race was consuming ever larger portions of national budgets at an unsustainable rate (Ferguson claims that the only limitations on more military spending before 1914 were political, not economic)^[25]
• That World War I was, as Fritz Fischer claimed, a war of aggression on the part of Germany that necessitated British involvement to stop Germany from conquering Europe (Ferguson claims that if Germany had been victorious, something like the European Union would have been created in 1914, and that it would have been for the best if Britain had chosen to opt out of war in 1914)^[26]
• That most people were happy with the outbreak of war in 1914 (Ferguson claims that most Europeans were saddened by the coming of war) ^[27]
• That propaganda was successful in making men wish to fight (Ferguson argues the opposite)^[28]
• That the Allies made the best use of their economic resources (Ferguson argues that the Allies “squandered” their economic resources) ^[29]
• That the British and the French had the better armies (Ferguson claims the German Army was superior)^[30]
• That the Allies were more efficient at killing Germans (Ferguson argues that the Germans were more efficient at killing the Allies)^[31]
• That most soldiers hated fighting in the war (Ferguson argues most soldiers fought more or less willingly)^[32]
• That the British treated German prisoners of war well (Ferguson argues the British routinely killed German POWs)^[33]
• That Germany was faced with reparations after 1921 that could not be paid except at ruinous economic cost (Ferguson argues that Germany could easily have paid reparations had there been the political will)^[34]

Another controversial aspect of the Pity of War was Ferguson's use of counterfactual history. Ferguson presented a counter-factual version of Europe under Imperial German domination that was peaceful, prosperous, democratic and without ideologies like Communism and fascism.^[35] In Ferguson's view, had Germany won World War I, then the lives of millions would have been saved, something like the European Union would have been founded in 1914, and Britain would have remained an empire and the world's dominant financial power.^[35]

Rothschilds[link]

Ferguson wrote two volumes about the prominent Rothschild family:

• The House of Rothschild: Volume 1: Money's Prophets: 1798–1848^[36]
• The House of Rothschild: Volume 2: The World's Banker: 1849–1999^[37]

The books won the Wadsworth Prize for Business History and were also short-listed for the Jewish Quarterly-Wingate Literary Award and the American National Jewish Book Award.^[17]

Counterfactual history[link]

Ferguson sometimes champions counterfactual history, and edited a collection of essays exploring the subject titled Virtual History: Alternatives and Counterfactuals (1997). Ferguson likes to imagine alternative outcomes as a way of stressing the contingent aspects of history. For Ferguson, great forces don't make history; individuals do, and nothing is predetermined. Thus for Ferguson there are no paths in history that will determine how things will work out. The world is neither progressing nor regressing; only the actions of individuals will determine whether we live in a better or worse world. His championing of the method has been controversial within the field.^[38]

In a 2011 review of Ferguson's book Civilization: The West and the Rest, Noel Malcolm (a Senior Research Fellow in History at All Souls College at Oxford University) stated (without mentioning counterfactuals) that: "Students may find this an intriguing introduction to a wide range of human history; but they will get an odd idea of how historical argument is to be conducted, if they learn it from this book."^[39]

Henry Kissinger[link]

In 2003, former U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger provided Ferguson with access to his White House diaries, letters, and archives for what Ferguson calls a "warts-and-all biography" of Kissinger.^[40]

Colonialism[link]

Ferguson is critical of what he calls the "self-flagellation" that he says characterizes modern European thought.

"The moral simplification urge is an extraordinarily powerful one, especially in this country, where imperial guilt can lead to self-flagellation," he told a reporter. "And it leads to very simplistic judgments. The rulers of western Africa prior to the European empires were not running some kind of scout camp. They were engaged in the slave trade. They showed zero sign of developing the country's economic resources. Did Senegal ultimately benefit from French rule? Yes, it's clear. And the counterfactual idea that somehow the indigenous rulers would have been more successful in economic development doesn't have any credibility at all."^[2]

Richard Drayton, Rhodes Professor of Imperial History at the University of London, has stated that it is correct to associate "Ferguson with an attempt to 'rehabilitate empire' in the service of contemporary great power interests".^[41]

Bernard Porter attacked Empire in The London Review of Books as a "panegyric to British colonialism".^[42] Ferguson in response to this drew Porter's attention to the conclusion of the book, where he writes: "No one would claim that the record of the British Empire was unblemished. On the contrary, I have tried to show how often it failed to live up to its own ideal of individual liberty, particularly in the early era of enslavement, transportation and the "ethnic cleansing" of indigenous peoples." Ferguson argues however that the British Empire was preferable to the alternatives:

'The 19th-century empire undeniably pioneered free trade, free capital movements and, with the abolition of slavery, free labour. It invested immense sums in developing a global network of modern communications. It spread and enforced the rule of law over vast areas. Though it fought many small wars, the empire maintained a global peace unmatched before or since. In the 20th century too the empire more than justified its own existence. For the alternatives to British rule represented by the German and Japanese Empires were clearly – and they admitted it themselves – far worse. And without its empire, it is inconceivable that Britain could have withstood them.'^[42]

Islam and Eurabia[link]

Matthew Carr wrote in Race & Class that "Niall Ferguson, the conservative English historian and enthusiastic advocate of a new American empire, has also embraced the Eurabian idea in a widely reproduced article entitled ‘Eurabia?’,^[43] in which he laments the 'de-Christianization of Europe' and its culture of secularism that leaves the continent 'weak in the face of fanaticism'." Carr adds that "Ferguson sees the recent establishment of a department of Islamic studies in his Oxford college as another symptom of 'the creeping Islamicization of a decadent Christendom'" and that in a 2004 lecture at the American Enterprise Institute entitled 'The end of Europe?',^[44] "Ferguson struck a similarly Spenglerian note, conjuring the term 'impire' to depict a process in which a ‘political entity, instead of expanding outwards towards its periphery, exporting power, implodes – when the energies come from outside into that entity’. In Ferguson's opinion, this process was already under way in a decadent 'post-Christian' Europe that was drifting inexorably towards the dark denouement of a vanquished civilisation and the fatal embrace of Islam."^[45]

Iraq war[link]

Ferguson supported the Iraq war and is not necessarily opposed to future incursions in the world.

"It's all very well for us to sit here in the west with our high incomes and cushy lives, and say it's immoral to violate the sovereignty of another state. But if the effect of that is to bring people in that country economic and political freedom, to raise their standard of living, to increase their life expectancy, then don't rule it out".^[2]

Economic policy[link]

In its 15 August 2005 edition, The New Republic published "The New New Deal", an essay by Ferguson and Laurence J. Kotlikoff, a Professor of Economics at Boston University. The two scholars called for the following changes to the American government's fiscal and income security policies:

• Replacing the personal income tax, corporate income tax, Federal Insurance Contributions Act tax (FICA), estate tax, and gift tax with a 33% Federal Retail Sales Tax (FRST), plus a monthly rebate, amounting to the FRST a household with similar demographics would pay if its income were at the poverty line. See also: FairTax
• Replacing the Old Age benefits paid under Social Security with a Personal Security System, consisting of private retirement accounts for all citizens, plus a government benefit payable to those whose savings were insufficient to afford a minimum retirement income
• Replacing Medicare and Medicaid with a Medical Security System that would provide health insurance vouchers to all citizens, the value of which would be determined by one's health
• Cutting federal discretionary spending by 20%

Criticisms[link]

As scholar[link]

Fellow academics have questioned Ferguson's commitment to scholarship. Benjamin Wallace-Wells, an editor of The Washington Monthly, comments that

"The House of Rothschild remains Ferguson's only major work to have received prizes and wide acclaim from other historians. Research restrains sweeping, absolute claims: Rothschild is the last book Ferguson wrote for which he did original archival work, and his detailed knowledge of his subject meant that his arguments for it couldn't be too grand."^[46]

John Lewis Gaddis, a Cold War era historian, characterized Ferguson as having unrivaled "range, productivity and visibility" at the same time as criticising his work as being "unpersuasive". Gaddis goes on to state that "several of Ferguson's claims, moreover, are contradictory".^[47]

Marxist historian Eric Hobsbawm has praised Ferguson as an excellent historian.^[48] However, he has also criticised Ferguson, saying, on the BBC Radio programme Start the Week, that he was a "nostalgist for empire".^[49] Ferguson responded to the above criticisms in a Washington Post "Live Discussions" online forum in 2006.^[50]

Exchanges with Krugman[link]

In May 2009, Ferguson became involved in a high-profile exchange of views with economist Paul Krugman (winner in 2008 of the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economics) arising out of a panel discussion hosted by Pen/New York Review on 30 April 2009, regarding the U.S. economy. Ferguson contended that the Obama administration's policies are simultaneously Keynesian and monetarist, in an incoherent mix, and specifically that the government's issuance of a multitude of new bonds will cause an increase in interest rates. Krugman then extended the criticism to China and the European Union, as both pursued policies more in accord with Ferguson's stance than Krugman's.^{[51][52][53][54]}

Krugman has argued that Ferguson's view is "resurrecting 75-year old fallacies" and full of "basic errors". He has also stated that Ferguson is a "poseur" who "...hasn't bothered to understand the basics, relying on snide comments and surface cleverness to convey the impression of wisdom. It's all style, no comprehension of substance."^{[55][56][57][58]}

Personal life[link]

Ferguson married journalist Susan Douglas, whom he met in 1987 when she was his editor at the Daily Mail. They have three children.^[59] They separated in 2010 and divorced in 2011.

In February 2010 news media reported that Ferguson had separated from Douglas and started dating former Dutch MP Ayaan Hirsi Ali.^[60][61][62] Ferguson married Hirsi Ali in September 2011.^[63] News media^[who?] have reported that Hirsi Ali and Ferguson had a baby boy in late December 2011.^{[citation needed]} Ferguson dedicated his book Civilization to "Ayaan". In an interview with The Guardian, Ferguson spoke about his love for Ali, who, he writes in the preface, "understands better than anyone I know what Western civilisation really means – and what it still has to offer the world".^[2] Ali, he continued,

...grew up in the Muslim world, was born in Somalia, spent time in Saudi Arabia, was a fundamentalist as a teenager. Her journey from the world of her childhood and family to where she is today is an odyssey that's extremely hard for you or I to imagine. To see and hear how she understands western philosophy, how she understands the great thinkers of the Enlightenment, of the 19th-century liberal era, is a great privilege, because she sees it with a clarity and freshness of perspective that's really hard for us to match. So much of liberalism in its classical sense is taken for granted in the west today and even disrespected. We take freedom for granted, and because of this we don't understand how incredibly vulnerable it is.^[2]

Ferguson's self confessed workaholism has placed strains on his personal relations in the past. Ferguson has commented that:

...from 2002, the combination of making TV programmes and teaching at Harvard took me away from my children too much. You don't get those years back. You have to ask yourself: "Was it a smart decision to do those things?" I think the success I have enjoyed since then has been bought at a significant price. In hindsight, there would have been a bunch of things that I would have said no to.^[6]

Ferguson's younger sister is a professor at the University of Pennsylvania.^[6]

Ferguson was the inspiration for Alan Bennett's play The History Boys (2004), particularly the character of Irwin, a history teacher who urges his pupils to find a counterintuitive angle, and goes on to become a television historian.^[4]

Bibliography[link]

[edit] The Cash Nexus

In his 2001 book, The Cash Nexus, which he wrote following a year as Houblon-Norman Fellow at the Bank of England,^[17] Ferguson argues that the popular saying, "money makes the world go 'round", is wrong; instead he presented a case for human actions in history motivated by far more than just economic concerns.

[edit] Colossus and Empire

In his books Colossus and Empire, Ferguson presents reinterpretation of the history of the British Empire and in conclusion proposes that the modern policies of the United Kingdom and the United States, in taking a more active role in resolving conflict arising from the failure of states, are analogous to the 'Anglicization' policies adopted by the British Empire throughout the 19th century.^[64][65] In Colossus, Ferguson explores the United States' hegemony in foreign affairs and its future role in the world.^[66][67]

[edit] War of the World

The War of the World, published in 2006, had been ten years in the making and is a comprehensive analysis of the savagery of the 20th century. Ferguson shows how a combination of economic volatility, decaying empires, psychopathic dictators, and racially/ethnically motivated (and institutionalized) violence resulted in the wars and the genocides of what he calls "History's Age of Hatred". The New York Times Book Review named War of the World one of the 100 Notable Books of the Year in 2006, while the International Herald Tribune called it "one of the most intriguing attempts by an historian to explain man's inhumanity to man".^[68] Ferguson addresses the paradox that, though the 20th century was "so bloody", it was also "a time of unparalleled [economic] progress". As with his earlier work Empire,^[69] War of the World was accompanied by a Channel 4 television series presented by Ferguson.^[70]

[edit] The Ascent of Money

Published in 2008, The Ascent of Money examines the long history of money, credit, and banking. In it he predicts a financial crisis as a result of the world economy and in particular the United States using too much credit. Specifically he cites the China–America dynamic which he refers to as Chimerica where an Asian "savings glut" helped create the subprime mortgage crisis with an influx of easy money.^[71]

[edit] Civilization

Published in 2011, Civilization: The West and the Rest examines what Ferguson calls the most "interesting question" of our day: "Why, beginning around 1500, did a few small polities on the western end of the Eurasian landmass come to dominate the rest of the world?" He attributes this divergence to the West's development of six "killer apps" largely missing elsewhere in the world - "competition, science, democracy, medicine, consumerism and the work ethic".^[2] A related documentary Civilization: Is the West History? was broadcast as a six part series on Channel 4 in March and April 2011.^[72]

Publications[link]

This list is incomplete; you can help by expanding it.

• Ferguson, Niall (2012). Henry Kissinger: A Life. Allen Lane. 
• Ferguson, Niall (2011). Civilization: The West and the Rest. The Penguin Press HC. ISBN 978-1-59420-305-3. http://books.google.com/books?id=mRO3xuoTTeoC&printsec=frontcover. 
• Ferguson, Niall (2010). High Financier: The Lives And Times Of Siegmund Warburg. New York: Penguin. ISBN 978-1-59420-246-9. 
• Ferguson, Niall (2008). The Ascent of Money: A Financial History of the World. London: Allen Lane. ISBN 978-1-84614-106-5. 
• Ferguson, Niall (2006). The War of the World: History's Age of Hatred. London: Allen Lane. ISBN 0-7139-9708-7.  (also a Channel 4 series)^[70]
• Ferguson, Niall (2003). Empire: The Rise and Demise of the British World Order and the Lessons for Global Power. New York: Basic Books. ISBN 0-465-02328-2. 
• Ferguson, Niall (2005). 1914. Pocket Penguins 70s S.. London, England: Penguin Books Ltd. ISBN 0-14-102220-5. 
• Ferguson, Niall (2004). Colossus: The Rise And Fall Of The American Empire. Gardners Books. ISBN 0-7139-9770-2. 
• Ferguson, Niall (2003). Empire: How Britain Made the Modern World. London: Allen Lane. ISBN 0-7139-9615-3. 
• Ferguson, Niall (2001). The Cash Nexus: Money and Power in the Modern World, 1700-2000. London: Allen Lane. ISBN 0-7139-9465-7. 
• Ferguson, Niall (1999) [1997]. Virtual History: Alternatives and Counterfactuals. New York: Basic Books. ISBN 0-465-02322-3. 
• Ferguson, Niall (1999) [1998]. The Pity of War. New York: Basic Books. ISBN 0-465-05711-X. 
• Ferguson, Niall (1999). The House of Rothschild: The World's Banker, 1849–1999. New York, N.Y.: Viking. ISBN 0-670-88794-3. 
• Ferguson, Niall (1998). The World's Banker: The History of the House of Rothschild. London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson. ISBN 0-297-81539-3. 
• Ferguson, Niall (1998). The House of Rothschild. New York: Viking. ISBN 0-670-85768-8. 
• Ferguson, Niall (1995). Paper and Iron: Hamburg Business and German Politics in the Era of Inflation, 1897–1927. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-47016-1.