Lewis H. Gann

Lewis Henry Gann (1924–1997) was an American historian, political scientist and archivist. He is particularly known for his research in African history and specialized in the history of Central Africa in colonial era, writing a number of works in collaboration with Peter Duignan. He also worked on aspects of the history of the United States and plural societies.

Lewis H. Gann
Born	Ludwig Hermann Ganz 1924 Mainz, Rhine Province, Germany
Died	17 January 1997 (aged 72) Palo Alto, California, United States
Academic background
Alma mater	University of Oxford
Academic work
Discipline	African history
Institutions	Stanford University (Hoover Institution)

Biography

Gann was born in Mainz, Germany into a German Jewish family and was originally named Ludwig Hermann Ganz. In 1938, his family successfully escaped from Nazi anti-Semitic persecution and settled in the United Kingdom. He was educated at Carlisle Grammar School in northern England. In 1943, Gann enlisted in the Royal Fusiliers and served in World War II.[1] He was demobilised in 1947.

After the war, Gann joined the University of Oxford and gained a Bachelor of Arts degree in Modern History from Balliol College, Oxford in 1950.[1] After graduating, he travelled to Central Africa where he took a research post at the Rhodes-Livingstone Institute in Northern Rhodesia (now Zambia). He continued his studies at Oxford and gained a masters (B.Litt.) and doctorate in 1967.[2] He also worked at the University of Manchester (1952–54). In 1954, he emigrated to Southern Rhodesia after being offered a post at the National Archives of Rhodesia. Gann emigrated to the United States in 1963 where he took up a position at the Hoover Institution Library and Archives in Stanford University as curator of the Institute's African and European collections.[1] He was a fellow of the Royal Historical Society in London and was an Officer of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany.[2]

During the course of his academic career, Gann authored or edited 38 books, mainly on the subject of African history and political science.[1] He produced a number of important works in collaboration with Peter Duignan.[1] The two notably edited the five-volume Colonialism in Africa, 1870–1960 series (1969–74) with Cambridge University Press.

Notable publications

Monographs

• The Birth of a Plural Society: The Development of Northern Rhodesia under the British South Africa Company, 1894-1914 (Manchester: Rhodes-Livingstone Institute, 1958). Second edition published in 1968.
• A History of Northern Rhodesia: Early Days to 1953 (London: Chatto & Windus, 1964). Several editions.
• Guerrillas in History (Stanford: Hover Institution Press, 1971).
• Central Africa: The Former British States (Englewood Cliffs: Prentice Hall, 1971).
• The Makings of Central Africa (Salisbury: Central Africa Historical Association, 1972).
• Neo-colonialism, imperialism, and the "New Class" (Menlo Park: Institute for Humane Studies, 1975).

With Peter Duignan

• White Settlers in Tropical Africa (Hammondsworth: Penguin, 1962).
• Africa and the World: An Introduction to the History of Sub-Saharan Africa from Antiquity to 1840 (San Francisco: Chandler, 1972).
• The Rulers of German Africa 1884-1914 (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1977).
• The Rulers of British Africa, 1870-1914 (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1978).
• The Rulers of Belgian Africa, 1884-1914 (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1979).
• The Hispanics in the United States: A History (Stanford: Hoover Institute, 1986).

References

1. Saxon, Wolfgang (3 February 1997). "Lewis H. Gann, 72, Expert on Colonialist Africa". The New York Times. Retrieved 21 December 2016.
2. Workman, Bill (25 January 1997). "Obituary - Lewis H. Gann". SF Gate. Retrieved 21 December 2016.

Further reading

• Gann, Lewis H. (1993). "Ex Africa: An Africanist's Intellectual Autobiography". The Journal of Modern African Studies. 31 (3): 477–498. doi:10.1017/s0022278x00012040. JSTOR 161206.