Michael biddiss biography

Biddiss was formerly a fellow of Downing College, Cambridge.
Michael Biddiss was Professor of History in the Department from 1979 to 2004, since when he has been Professor Emeritus.
Michael Denis Biddiss is emeritus professor of history at the University of Reading.

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The Uses and Abuses of Antiquity

by Michael Biddiss (Volume editor)Maria Wyke (Volume editor)

Science, Society & Culture

Summary

This multi-disciplinary volume brings together essays illustrating the diversity of forms in which the legacy of Antiquity has been used, and abused, by the Modern West. Here classicists and non-classicists combine to show how historiography, anthropology, philosophy, political thought, archaeology, poetry, drama, the novel, music, architecture, sculpture, painting, photography, and film can be rewardingly juxtaposed as sites rich in the appropriation of Greco-Roman culture. The book has a chronological span running from the 17th to the late-20th century, and it ranges geographically from Britain to Europe and the USA. The authors remind us that it is often not the past itself so much as constructed images thereof which do most to mould our cultural consciousness. The collection discloses the pluralism and flexibility of Antiquity as an important modern

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Biddiss, Michael Denis

BIDDISS, Michael Denis. British, b. 1942. Genres: History, Intellectual history, International relations/Current affairs. Career: Downing College, Cambridge, Fellow, 1966-73, Director of Studies in History, 1970-73; University of Leicester, Lecturer, 1973-78, Reader in History, 1978-79; University of Reading, Professor of History, 1979-, Dean, Faculty of Letters and Social Sciences, 1982-85. Royal Historical Society, Vice President, 1995-99; Historical Association, President, 1991-94. Publications: Father of Racist Ideology: The Social and Political Thought of Count Gobineau, 1970; (with F.F. Cartwright) Disease and History, 1972, rev. ed., 2000; The Age of the Masses: Ideas and Society in Europe since 1870, 1977; The Nuremberg Trial and the Third Reich, 1992. EDITOR: Gobineau: Selected Political Writings, 1970; Images of Race, 1979; (with K. Minogue) Thatcherism: Politics and Personality, 1987; (with M. Wyke) The Uses and Abuses of Antiquity, 1999; (with S. Peters and I. Roe) The Humanities in the New Millennium, 2002. Address: School of History

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Professor Michael Biddiss

Background

Michael Biddiss was Professor of History in the Department from 1979 to 2004, since when he has been Professor Emeritus. He was Dean of the Faculty from 1982 to 1985, and Head of History from 1985 to 1989 and 1993 to 1997.

His other former posts include Presidency of the Historical Association (1991-4) and Joint Vice-Presidency of the Royal Historical Society (1995-9). He is also an Honorary Fellow (and former President) of the Faculty of the History and Philosophy of Medicine at the Society of Apothecaries in London, where he continues to teach on diploma courses for doctors and other health professionals.

Selected publications

Professor Biddiss is the author, co-author, or co-editor of numerous books and articles on aspects of European development since the late-18th century, with some particular emphasis on the history of ideas, of international criminal jurisprudence, and of medical culture.

His two most recent major publications have each involved collaboration with Reading colleagues:
• Nicholas Atkin & Michael Biddiss (c