Luuk van Middelaar
Luuk Johannes van Middelaar (born 9 May 1973 in Eindhoven) is a Dutch historian and political philosopher who was a member of the People's Party for Freedom and Democracy (Volkspartij voor Vrijheid en Democratie - VVD), which is the biggest conservative-liberal formation in the Netherlands.[1] Since December 2009 Van Middelaar is member of the cabinet of Herman Van Rompuy, the first President of the European Council.[2]
He studied history and philosophy at the University of Groningen and the Centre Raymond Aron of the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales in Paris. In 1999 his masters thesis (doctoraalscriptie in Dutch) "Politicide" was published. He became for a time the political adviser and speechwriter of Frits Bolkestein and Jozias van Aartsen. From August 2008 to December 2009 he had a political column in NRC Handelsblad. In 2009 he got his Ph.D from the University of Amsterdam. Subject of his doctoral thesis was the origins and development of the European Union.
Van Middelaar was awarded the Prix de Paris (Prize of Paris) in 1999 and the Prijs voor de Vrijheid (Prize of Liberty) in 2002 for his contributions to liberal thought.
In December 2012 he was awarded the European Book Prize for The passage to Europe - History of a Beginning.[3]
Bibliography
- Luuk van Middelaar (2009) De passage naar Europa, Geschiedenis van een begin (The passage to Europe. History of a Beginning). Groningen: Historische uitgeverij
- Madelon de Keizer & Luuk van Middelaar, (ed.) (2002). Utopie: utopisch denken, doen en bouwen in de twintigste eeuw (Utopia. Utopian Thinking, Acting and Building in the Twentieth Century) (Jaarboek van het Nederlands Instituut voor Oorlogsdocumentatie), Zutphen: Walburg Pers
- Luuk van Middelaar (1999) Politicide: De moord op de politiek in de Franse filosofie (Politicide. The Murder of Politics in French Philosophy; masters thesis, published in the series: Kennis, openbare mening, politiek). Amsterdam: Van Gennep
External links
- Politicide - from the Foundation for the Production and Translation of Dutch Literature
- (Dutch) Luuk van Middelaar - Columns NRC Handelsblad
- Luuk van Middelaar - The Passage to Europe: How a Continent Became a Union
Notes
- ↑ 'Conservative-liberal' is in the Dutch political context not a contradiction. The VVD is opposed to revolutionary change, supportive of private enterprise, against bureaucracy, and advocate of an administration of moderate power.
- ↑ See: 'Columnist Van Middelaar gaat naar kabinet van Van Rompuy', NRC Handelsblad, 23 December 2009 (News Article in Dutch).
- ↑ The Passage to Europe, published by Yale University Press.
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