Robert Skidelsky, Baron Skidelsky

Infobox_Person
name = Robert Skidelsky, Baron Skidelsky

---

imagesize =
caption =
birth_date = birth date and age|1939|04|25|df=y
birth_place = Harbin, China
nationality = British
death_date =
death_place =
alma_mater = Jesus College, Oxford
occupation = Economist
known_for = Award winning biography of John Maynard Keynes
title = Lord
children =
spouse =
salary =
networth =
website = http://www.skidelskyr.com

Robert Jacob Alexander Skidelsky, Baron Skidelsky (born 25 April 1939 in Harbin, China) is a British economist of Russian origin and the author of a award-winning major three volume biography of John Maynard Keynes. He read history at Jesus College, Oxford. He is currently professor of economics at the University of Warwick, England.

Early life

Skidelsky's parents, Boris Skidelsky and Galia Sapelkin, were British subjects of Russian ancestry. His father worked for the family firm, L. S. Skidelsky, which leased the Mulin coalmine from the Chinese government. When war broke out between Britain and Japan in December 1941, he and his parents were interned first in Manchuria then Japan, and finally released in exchange for Japanese internees in England. He was educated at Brighton College

University education

Skidelsky read history at Jesus College, Oxford. From 1961 to 1969, he was successively research student, senior student, and research fellow at Nuffield College, Oxford. In 1967, he published his first book, Politicians and the Slump, based on his D.Phil dissertation. The book explores the ways in which British politicians handled the Great Depression.

Family

Skidelsky married Augusta Mary Clarissa Hope in 1970 and they have two sons and a daughter.

Career

During a two year research fellowship at the British Academy, Skidelsky began work in his biography of Oswald Mosley (published in 1975) and published English Progressive Schools (1969). In 1970, he became an Associate Professor of History at the School of Advanced International Studies, Johns Hopkins University. But the controversy surrounding the publication of his biography of Sir Oswald Mosley - in which he was felt to have let Mosley off too lightly - led John Hopkins University to refuse him tenure. Oxford University also proved unwilling to give him a permanent post. From 1976 to 1978, he was professor of history, philosophy and European studies at the Polytechnic of North London. In 1978, he was appointed Professor of International Studies at the University of Warwick, where he has since remained, though joining the Economics Department as Professor Political Economy in 1990. He was appointed Professorial Fellow of the Global Policy Institute at London Metropolitan University.

Skidelsky has been a member of a number of political parties: originally a Labour member, he quit that party to become a founding member of the SDPwhere he remained until the party's dissolution in 1992.In 1991, he was made a life peer, and in 1992 he took the Conservative whip. He was made chief opposition spokesman in the Lords, first for Culture, then for Treasury affairs (1997-9), but he was sacked by the then Conservative party leader William Hague, for publicly opposing Nato's bombing of Kosovo. In 2001, he left the Conservative Party for the Cross Benches. He was chairman of the Social Market Foundation between 1991 and 2001.

Skidelsky has been a Governor of Brighton College since 1998, and is now Chairman of the Governors. He has also been an Honorary Fellow of Jesus College, Oxford, since 1997. He became a Fellow of the British Academy in 1994.

Since 2003, Skidelsky has been a non-executive director of the mutual fund manager, Janus Capital, and since 2005, a non-executive chairman of the hedge fund, the Greater Europe Fund. In 2008, he was made a non-executive director of Sistema, the Russian telecommunications giant. He is a director of the Moscow School of Political Studies and Founder and Executive Secretary of the UK/Russia Round Table. Since 2002, he has been chairman of The Centre for Global Studies. He is also a Trustee of the Manhattan Institute. Skidelsky writes a twice-monthly column for the Russian newspaper Vedomosti, and a monthly column, "Against the Current" for Project Syndicate, which is syndicated in newspapers all over the world.

elected works

*Politicians and the Slump, 1967
*Biography of Oswald Mosley, 1975
*John Maynard Keynes, Fighting for Britain, 1937-1946, 2000
*Keynes, Oxford University Press (Past Masters), 1996
*The World After Communism: A Polemic for our Times, Macmillan, 1995, called the Road to Serfdom in America
*Interests and Obsessions: Historical Essays, Macmillan, 1993
*John Maynard Keynes, The Economist as Savior, 1920-1937, 1992
*John Maynard Keynes, Hopes Betrayed, 1883-1920, 1983

Skidelsky's major three volume biography of John Maynard Keynes won the Wolfson History Prize in 1992, the Duff Cooper Prize in 2000, the Samuel Johnson Prize for non-fiction writing in 2000, the James Tait Black Memorial Prize for biography in 2001, the Arthur Ross Book Award for international relations in 2002, and the Lionel Gelber Prize for International Relations.

In the media

Skidelsky was interviewed about the rise of Thatcherism for the 2006 BBC TV documentary series "Tory! Tory! Tory!".

On April 15, 2008. Skidelsky has been interviewed by Russia Today about "Russian politics from the Western point of view".

5 October 2008, interviewed by Andrew Neil on "Hard Talk" broadcast on the BBC News channel.

External links

* [http://skidelskyr.com Robert Skidelsky's Official Website]
* [http://www.bc.edu/bc_org/research/rapl/events/skidelsky_paper.html Keynes and the ethics of capitalism by Robert Skidelsky]
* [http://www.project-syndicate.org/series/22/description Robert Skidelsky's monthly op-ed commentary series "Against the Current"] for Project Syndicate

Persondata
NAME= Skidelsky, Robert, Baron Skidelsky
ALTERNATIVE NAMES=
SHORT DESCRIPTION= Economist and author
DATE OF BIRTH= 1939-04-25
PLACE OF BIRTH= Harbin, China
DATE OF DEATH=
PLACE OF DEATH=