Ian Tyrrell

Biography

Ian Tyrrell is an Emeritus Professor of History at the University of New South Wales, Sydney, where he was a Scientia Professor and  taught mainly environmental history, historiography, and 19th and 20th century U.S. history from 1975 to 2012. In addition to publishing two books on aspects of Australian history, he is best known for his research in U.S. history, particularly for the late nineteenth and early twentieth  centuries. He was one of the earliest key contributors to the so-called internationalization of U.S. history and the use of transnational history methods within that field. Most recently he has returned to a long-time interest in the doctrine of American exceptionalism. Tyrrell was editor of the Australasian Journal of American Studies (1991-96); President of the Australian and New Zealand American Studies Association (2002-06); and President, Alcohol and Drugs History Society (2004-06). He has been a visiting professor at the Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales in Paris; and Joyce Appleby (Visiting) Professor of United States History at the University of California, Los Angeles; and served as the Harold Vyvyan Harmsworth Professor of American History in the University of Oxford for 2010-11 (the first non-American appointed). He was appointed a Professorial Fellow of the Queen’s College, Oxford.