Szechi, Daniel 1956–

PERSONAL:

Born December 25, 1956; married. Education: University of Sheffield, England, B.A., 1979; St. Antony's College, Oxford, D.Phil., 1983. Hobbies and other interests: Politics, hill walking, good beer, good food, and good cigars.

ADDRESSES:

Office— School of Arts, Histories and Cultures, University of Manchester, Oxford Rd., Manchester M13 9PL, England. E-mail— daniel.szechi@manchester.ac.uk.

CAREER:

Historian, educator, writer, and editor. University of Sheffield, Sheffield, England, university research fellow, 1982-85; University of Hull, Hull, England, lecturer in history, 1985-86; Oxford University, St. John's College, Oxford, England, lecturer in modern history, 1986-88; faculty member at Auburn University, Auburn, AL, c. 1989-2007, appointed alumni professor, 1994, and distinguished graduate faculty lecturer, 2001; Air War University, Maxwell Air Force Base, AL, visiting professor, 1998-99; University of Manchester, Manchester, England, distinguished chair and professor of early modern history, c. 2006—. Also fellow of Institute for Advanced Studies in the Humanities, Edinburgh, Scotland, 1997, and elected Council Member of North American Conference on British Studies, 2005-2010.

AWARDS, HONORS:

Wellings Prize in Modern History, University of Sheffield 1977; Gibbons Prize, Faculty of Arts, University of Sheffield, 1979; Fellow of the Royal Historical Society, 1984; Robert Reid Award for Teaching Excellence, Auburn University 1995; Panhellenic Council Award for Outstanding Teaching, Auburn University, 1997; fellow, Royal Society of Edinburgh, 2006.

WRITINGS:

Jacobitism and Tory Politics, 1710-14, J. Donald Publishers (Edinburgh, Scotland), 1984.

(Editor)Letters of George Lockhart of Carnwath, 1698-1732, Scottish History Society/Pillans & Wilson (Edinburgh, Scotland), 1989.

(With Geoffrey Holmes)The Age of Oligarchy: Pre-Industrial Britain, 1722-1783, Longman (New York, NY), 1993.

The Jacobites: Britain and Europe, 1688-1788, Manchester University Press/St. Martin's Press (New York, NY), 1994.

(Editor)Scotland's Ruine: Lockhart of Carnwath's Memoirs of the Union, foreword by Paul Scott, Association for Scottish Literary Studies (Aberdeen, Scotland), 1995.

George Lockhart of Carnwath, 1681-1731: A Study in Jacobitism, Tuckwell (East Linton, East Lothian, Scotland), 2002.

1715: The Great Jacobite Rebellion, Yale University Press (New Haven, CT), 2006.

Contributor to books, including Toleration and Persecution: Studies in Church History, edited by W.J. Sheils, Blackwell, 1984;Britain in the First Age of Party, 1680-1745: Essays Presented to Geoffrey Holmes, edited by C. Jones, Hambledon Press, 1987;The Jacobite Challenge, edited by E. Cruickshanks and J. Black, John Donald, 1988;Conquest and Coalescence: The Shaping of the State in Early Modern Europe, edited by M. Greengrass, Edward Arnold, 1991;A Companion to Eighteenth-Century Britain, edited by H.T. Dickinson, Blackwell, 2002; and The Stuart Court in Rome: The Legacy of Exile, edited by E. Corp, Aldershot, 2003. Contributor to periodicals, including Parliamentary History, English Historical Review, Catholic Historical Review, and the Journal of British Studies.

SIDELIGHTS:

Daniel Szechi is an historian who is primarily interested in the late-seventeenth- to the early-nineteenth-century history of the British Isles. Of special interest to Szechi are Scotland and Jacobitism (the political movement that sought to restore the Stuart kings to the thrones of England and Scotland). The author's interest in Jacobitism encompasses the entire range of the movement, from theology to art. "Over the past twenty years I have explored the Jacobite mind in a series of books and articles," noted the author in his faculty profile on the University of Manchester, School of Arts, Histories and Cultures Web Site.

Szechi collaborated with Geoffrey Holmes to write The Age of Oligarchy: Pre-Industrial Britain, 1722-1783. The book covers a wide range of topics pertinent to the era in Great Britain's history, including a survey of various publications in science, religion, philosophy, and politics, as well as literature. "Wales, Ireland and Scotland are repeatedly introduced as contrasting scenarios to England's [history]," noted J.C.D. Clark in the English Historical Review. Writing in the same review, Clark noted: "A textbook should show a living subject evolving in a creative debate; it should not be a gravestone to a dead subject." He then added that the The Age of Oligarchy and another book by coauthor Holmes "achieve the first and avoid the second."

In The Jacobites: Britain and Europe, 1688-1788, Szechi "has produced the most succinct and persuasive account to date of the Jacobite phenomenon," according to Colin Kidd in a review in the Journal of Ecclesiastical History. The book begins by focusing on the how Jacobitism domestically impacted Great Britain up to the failure of the 1715 rebellion and then focuses on the Jacobite movement and its relation with European states beginning in 1716.

George Lockhart of Carnwath, 1681-1731: A Study in Jacobitism is a biography of the Scottish writer, politician, and spy who was appointed one of the commissioners that arranged the Scottish union with England in 1705. According to Albion contributor Stuart Handley, the book begins with a conventional biography of Lockhart that covers his life from birth to death and then ends with an in-depth analysis of his mind in terms of his fundamental beliefs and political views. "In breaking down Lockhart's thought into components he provides an illuminating discussion of the strands of early eighteenth-century Scottish thought that might have made a difference to Lockhart's views," wrote Handley.

Other reviewers also praised the biography. Writing in the English Historical Review, David Allan called the book "a brave and imaginative effort which offers persuasive evidence that the careful biographical treatment of individuals, exploring their social and religious commitments and tracing their personal activities and relationships, may yet offer us the best way of understanding the obscure dynamics of early eighteenth-century Jacobite politics." The author also served as editor of the earlier book,Letters of George Lockhart of Carnwath, 1698-1732. Bruce P. Lenman wrote in the English Historical Review: "Well-indexed, admirably produced, this edition will deservedly enhance Szechi's professional reputation."

In his 2006 book,1715: The Great Jacobite Rebellion, the author explores the rebellion that occurred in most of Scotland and northern England against the standing political order that had prevailed since 1688. "It takes in all three kingdoms and the Jacobite diaspora in Europe with a view to exploring how the rebels persuaded themselves that they had come to the right time and place to overthrow the prevailing political order, and the fundamental social dynamics of the rebellion," the author noted in his faculty profile on the University of Manchester Web Site.

In a review of 1715 on the Institute of Historical Research Web Site, Gabriel Glickman noted: "The 1715 rebellion has never really sparkled in the heroic iconography of the Jacobite cause. Within the old received narrative of doomed chivalry and defeated virtue, it inhabits a melancholic role, untouched by the colour and charisma of Charles Edward Stuart and the '45, or the epic afterglow of Viscount Dundee's earlier stand at Killecrankie." However, Glickman went on to write that the rebellion in 1715 is "fertile territory for those scholars who have sought to rediscover the Jacobite movement as a genuine challenge to the post-Revolution, post-Union British state."

In 1715, the author begins by focusing on the economic and political factors that led to the rebellion. He then follows the rebellion to its eventual defeat. A contributor to the Contemporary Review called the book "the best study yet of the '15 and of its consequences for British history." Writing in the Catholic Historical Review, J.C.D. Clark commented that "for Scotland and for the European dimension [of the rebellion], Daniel Szechi has produced undoubtedly the standard modern study."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Albion, winter, 2004, Stuart Handley, review of George Lockhart of Carnwath, 1681-1731: A Study in Jacobitism, p. 710.

American Historical Review, June, 1986, Norma Landau, review of Jacobitism and Tory Politics, 1710-14, p. 661; February, 2004, Edward Gregg, review of George Lockhart of Carnwath, 1681-1731, p. 250; June, 2007, Geoffrey Plank, review of 1715: The Great Jacobite Rebellion, p. 925.

Catholic Historical Review, July, 2007, J.C.D. Clark, review of 1715, p. 666.

Choice: Current Reviews for Academic Libraries, December, 2006, D.M. Hall, review of 1715, p. 707.

Contemporary Review, spring, 2007, review of 1715, p. 125.

English Historical Review, July, 1987, B.W. Hill, review of Jacobitism and Tory Politics, 1710-14, p. 723; July, 1993, Bruce P. Lenman, review of Letters of George Lockhart of Carnwath, 1698-1732, p. 725; April, 1996, J.C.D. Clark, review of The Age of Oligarchy: Pre-Industrial Britain, 1722-1783, p. 479; September, 1996, Edward Gregg, review of The Jacobites: Britain and Europe, 1688-1788, p. 990; September, 2003, David Allan, review of George Lockhart of Carnwath, 1681-1731, p. 1007.

History: The Journal of the Historical Association, February, 1995, Bob Harris, review of The Age of Oligarchy, p. 133; January, 1996, H.T. Dickinson, review of The Jacobites, p. 129.

Journal of British Studies, April, 2007, Roger L. Emerson, review of 1715, p. 471.

Journal of Ecclesiastical History, July, 1995, Colin Kidd, review of The Jacobites, p. 528.

London Review of Books, December 14, 2006, Colin Kidd, "Pudding Time," review of 1715, p. 16.

Spectator, July 22, 2006, Ben Wilson, "Pudding Time for Whigs," review of 1715.

Times Higher Education Supplement, March 18, 1994, Jeremy Black, review of The Age of Oligarchy, p. 21.

ONLINE

College of Liberal Arts, Auburn University Web Site,http://media.cla.auburn.edu/history/alumni/bios/szechi_daniel.htm (November 9, 2007), faculty profile of author.

Institute of Historical Research Web Site,http://www.history.ac.uk/ (November 9, 2007), Gabriel Glickman, review of 1715.

University of Manchester, School of Arts, Histories and Cultures Web Site,http://www.arts.manchester.ac.uk/ (November 9, 2007), faculty profile of author.