Biography
Simon Schama
Who is he: Simon Schama is a British historian and art critic with the New Yorker who is currently a professor at Columbia University. Schama is best known for the BBC 15-part documentary "A History of Britain." In addition, Schama has written extensively about the French Revolution.
Schama's second book, written in 1978, Two Rothschilds and the Land of Israel, details the goals of Edmond James de Rothschild, James Armand de Rothschild and the Rothschild banking empire to create the nation of Israel both to benefit the bank as well as the Zionist vision of a homeland for the Jewish people.
Simon Schama is obviously an academic with a vision. Because it corresponds to that of the ruling elite, Schama has been amply rewarded for his views. Not only are his books published widely but, through broadly hyped media programs, his recognition is amply expanded.
Background: Simon Michael Schama was born in London on February 13, 1945 and attended Columbia University as well as Christ's College at Cambridge University. His parents' families were from across Eastern Europe/Eurasia, ranging from Turkey and Romania to Lithuania. Schama received a scholarship in 1956 to the Haberdashers' Aske's Boys School and after graduation Schama attended Cambridge where he studied history under J. H. Plumb graduating in 1966.
Sharma became a history lecturer at Cambridge and then a Fellow and Director of Studies in History. At Oxford, Schama specialized in the French Revolution where he wrote Patriots and Liberators in 1977, which actually focused more on the Patriot Revolution in the Netherlands.
The book is informative and explains how the revolution and new Batavian Republic received wide public support from the population despite the military support of the revolutionary French Republic. Like many nations today controlled by the Anglo-American Axis, the Netherlands became a client state of France, which supported three coups d'etat to force the nation into policies favored by Napoleon and the French nation. The Netherlands changed into a centralized, unitary state with a written constitution and democratic trappings.
Next Schama taught at Harvard and authored The Embarrassment of Riches in 1987. Here Schama focused on the Dutch Golden Age of the 17th Century, suggesting the Dutch were caught between two opposing imperatives as whether to live a rich and powerful or a godly life. In 2000, Schama returned from Harvard to the UK where the BBC commissioned him to produce a TV documentary, later expanded to DVDs on the history of Britain for their millennium celebrations. It was titled "A History of Britain." Later this was expanded to 15 episodes along with a number of print publications and books on the subject.
Schama followed this success with another book deal and TV series for the BBC and Harper Collins titled Rough Crossings: Britain, the Slaves and the American Revolution about the British proclamation by Lord Dunmore during the Revolutionary War offering the slaves of American patriots freedom if they fought for the British.
Later during the American Civil War, President Lincoln attempted a similar PR action to weaken the Confederate States of America. Unlike the British action, which was not fulfilled since the British lost the war, Lincoln's similar self-serving venture ended slavery because the Union won the war.
Simon Schama: Site Contributions
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