Timothy Garton Ash CMG FRSA is a British historian and author known for his work on European history and political writing. He is a Professor of European Studies at the University of Oxford.
Garton Ash was born to John Garton Ash and Lorna Judith Freke. After attending St Edmund's and Sherborne School, he studied Modern History at Exeter College, Oxford. Timothy continued his education at St Antony's College, the Free University in West Berlin, and Humboldt University in East Berlin. During his time in East Berlin, the Stasi monitored him, viewing him as a "bourgeois-liberal" and potential British spy. He later used this experience as the basis for his 1997 book, The File.
His career began with research on the German resistance to Hitler, which led him to live in both halves of divided Berlin. During this period, he began traveling behind the Iron Curtain extensively. In the 1980s, he reported and analyzed the emancipation of Central Europe from communism through contributions to the New York Review of Books, the Independent, the Times, and the Spectator. He served as Foreign Editor of the Spectator and was a columnist on foreign affairs for the Independent.
In 1986–87, he was a Fellow at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington, DC. Since 1990, he has been a Fellow at St Antony's College, Oxford, where he directed the European Studies Centre from 2001 to 2006. He became Isaiah Berlin Professorial Fellow and, since 2010, has directed the Dahrendorf Programme at the European Studies Centre. In 2000, he joined Stanford University's Hoover Institution as a Senior Fellow.
Garton Ash's books include Und willst Du nicht mein Bruder sein … Die DDR heute (1981), The Polish Revolution: Solidarity (1983), The Uses of Adversity: Essays on the Fate of Central Europe (1989), The Magic Lantern: The Revolution of '89 witnessed in Warsaw, Budapest, Berlin, and Prague (1990), In Europe's Name: Germany and the Divided Continent (1993), The File: A Personal History (1997), History of the Present: Essays, Sketches and Dispatches from Europe in the 1990s (2000), Free World (2004), Facts are Subversive: Political Writing from a Decade without a Name (2009), and Free Speech: Ten Principles for a Connected World (2016).
His latest book, Homelands: A Personal History of Europe, was published in 2023 and is being translated into at least nineteen languages. This work explores the history and transformation of Europe over recent decades.
Garton Ash has received numerous awards, including the Somerset Maugham Award for The Polish Revolution: Solidarity (1983), the Prix Européen de l'Essai for The Uses of Adversity (1989), and the British Academy's Prize for Global Cultural Understanding for Free Speech: Ten Principles for a Connected World (2016). He has also been honored with the Order of Merit from Germany, Poland, the Czech Republic, and the British CMG. In 2006, he received the George Orwell Prize for political writing, and in 2017, the Charlemagne Prize.
He writes a widely syndicated column for The Guardian. He also contributes to the Financial Times and the New York Review of Books and Prospect.
Timothy Garton Ash lives in Oxford with his wife, Danuta, and they spend summers at Stanford. They have two sons, Tom and Alec.
Photo credit: www.timothygartonash.com
Garton Ash was born to John Garton Ash and Lorna Judith Freke. After attending St Edmund's and Sherborne School, he studied Modern History at Exeter College, Oxford. Timothy continued his education at St Antony's College, the Free University in West Berlin, and Humboldt University in East Berlin. During his time in East Berlin, the Stasi monitored him, viewing him as a "bourgeois-liberal" and potential British spy. He later used this experience as the basis for his 1997 book, The File.
His career began with research on the German resistance to Hitler, which led him to live in both halves of divided Berlin. During this period, he began traveling behind the Iron Curtain extensively. In the 1980s, he reported and analyzed the emancipation of Central Europe from communism through contributions to the New York Review of Books, the Independent, the Times, and the Spectator. He served as Foreign Editor of the Spectator and was a columnist on foreign affairs for the Independent.
In 1986–87, he was a Fellow at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington, DC. Since 1990, he has been a Fellow at St Antony's College, Oxford, where he directed the European Studies Centre from 2001 to 2006. He became Isaiah Berlin Professorial Fellow and, since 2010, has directed the Dahrendorf Programme at the European Studies Centre. In 2000, he joined Stanford University's Hoover Institution as a Senior Fellow.
Garton Ash's books include Und willst Du nicht mein Bruder sein … Die DDR heute (1981), The Polish Revolution: Solidarity (1983), The Uses of Adversity: Essays on the Fate of Central Europe (1989), The Magic Lantern: The Revolution of '89 witnessed in Warsaw, Budapest, Berlin, and Prague (1990), In Europe's Name: Germany and the Divided Continent (1993), The File: A Personal History (1997), History of the Present: Essays, Sketches and Dispatches from Europe in the 1990s (2000), Free World (2004), Facts are Subversive: Political Writing from a Decade without a Name (2009), and Free Speech: Ten Principles for a Connected World (2016).
His latest book, Homelands: A Personal History of Europe, was published in 2023 and is being translated into at least nineteen languages. This work explores the history and transformation of Europe over recent decades.
Garton Ash has received numerous awards, including the Somerset Maugham Award for The Polish Revolution: Solidarity (1983), the Prix Européen de l'Essai for The Uses of Adversity (1989), and the British Academy's Prize for Global Cultural Understanding for Free Speech: Ten Principles for a Connected World (2016). He has also been honored with the Order of Merit from Germany, Poland, the Czech Republic, and the British CMG. In 2006, he received the George Orwell Prize for political writing, and in 2017, the Charlemagne Prize.
He writes a widely syndicated column for The Guardian. He also contributes to the Financial Times and the New York Review of Books and Prospect.
Timothy Garton Ash lives in Oxford with his wife, Danuta, and they spend summers at Stanford. They have two sons, Tom and Alec.
Photo credit: www.timothygartonash.com
years of life: 12 July 1955 – present
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