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Princeton University history professor Sir David Cannadine has been appointed as the new editor of the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography.
Cannadine, who was born in Birmingham and has studied at the universities of Cambridge, Princeton and Oxford, will take up his post on 1st October, combining the role with teaching at Princeton.
He succeeds Dr Lawrence Goldman, the current editor of the DNB, who has held post since October 2004.
Cannadine told The Bookseller one of his first tasks when he takes up the post would be no light duty. “One of the first things I will be handling is the entry on Margaret Thatcher, and finding the right person to write that is very important,” he said.
He added: “I am the first general editor of the ODNB not to be based in Oxford and not to be based even in Britain and I think that in so far as the people who made this appointment were willing to appoint me says something about it future direction. One of the factors in that decision is thinking about its global audience and bringing it to that global market is something I am looking forward to.”
Cannadine said that while he wasn’t yet privy to the commercial costs of producing the print version of the influential dictionary, it was his personal opinion that the print version was still valuable to use alongside the online format. However, he said: “The Oxford DNB is an unrivalled scholarly resource of exceptional high quality, it is an essential and defining part of the public culture of our nation, and it is admired and emulated—and envied— around the world. I greatly look forward to working with Oxford University, with Oxford University Press, and with the Oxford DNB team, in taking the Dictionary forward with our global audience into the next phase of the digital age."
The Oxford DNB is the national record of more than 59,000 people who have shaped British history and culture from the Romans to the year 2010. It is a research and publishing project from Oxford University and one of its departments, Oxford University Press. Commenting on the appointment, Nigel Portwood, chief executive of Oxford University Press, said: “Sir David is an outstanding historian with the perfect credentials to lead the work on the Oxford DNB, and I know that he will ensure that it remains a trusted and valuable work of reference. I want to thank Dr Lawrence Goldman for his enormous contribution to the Oxford DNB, particularly in overseeing its digital transition. Through Lawrence’s tremendous work, Sir David inherits an excellent platform on which to build the next phase of the Oxford DNB.”
Goldman said in the 10 years since its publication, the dictionary has been updated, expanded and established as the preeminent source of information about the people who have made British history and shaped our society. “David’s immensely wide range as a historian, his work to develop popular interest in British history, and his skills in explaining the British past, will ensure that the Dictionary continues to educate and fascinate readers and scholars into the future,” he said.