Christopher M. Clark (born 1960, in Sydney) is an Australian historian working in England. He was educated at Sydney Grammar School, the University of Sydney and the Freie Universität Berlin.
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As he acknowledges in the foreword to "Iron Kingdom", living in West Berlin in what turned out to have been the last years of the divided Germany (1985–87) gave him an insight into German history and society. He received his Ph.D at the University of Cambridge. He is Professor in Modern European History at the University of Cambridge and a Fellow of St. Catharine's College.[1]
Clark is a co-editor of the scholarly book series New Studies in European History from Cambridge University Press. He is the author of a study of Christian-Jewish relations in Prussia (The Politics of Conversion. Missionary Protestantism and the Jews in Prussia, 1728-1941; Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1995); a critical biography of the last German Kaiser (Kaiser Wilhelm II; Harlow: Longman, 2000, series "Profiles in Power"), and a best-selling history of Prussia (Iron Kingdom. The Rise and Downfall of Prussia, 1600-1947; London: Penguin, 2006). He is also the co-editor with Wolfram Kaiser of a transnational study of secular-clerical conflict in nineteenth-century Europe (Culture Wars. Catholic-Secular Conflict in Nineteenth-Century Europe, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003), and the author of numerous articles and essays. Professor Clark presented the BBC4 documentary programme "Frederick the Great and the Enigma of Prussia" which was most recently broadcast in December 2010 (as of September 2011).[2]
Clark is a Fellow of the Australian Academy of the Humanities.
He is married to the art historian Dr Nina Lübbren, to whom he dedicated "Iron Kingdom" and who warmly acknowledged his support and assistance in her own academic work.[3] They have two sons, Josef and Alexander.