Welcome to Paul Crook’s website. It is designed to place online some of his recent essays, thoughts and information on historical topics that he is currently interested in, and to invite feedback from readers. You can access this material by clicking on the Blog and Writings buttons at the top of this page.
He is Emeritus Professor in History at the University of Queensland, Australia [UQ]. A graduate from UQ with First Class Honours in History, he has a PhD from The London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) and a Doctor of Letters from UQ. He is a specialist on Social Darwinism, the application of Charles Darwin’s evolutionary theory to politics and social theory. He has published widely in fields such as trans-Atlantic political history, diplomacy during the American Civil War, eugenics, bio-ethics, and the diffusion of culture. His latest books are: Darwinism, War and History (Cambridge University Press, 1994); Darwin’s Coat-Tails: Essays on Social Darwinism (Peter Lang, 2007); and Grafton Elliot Smith, Egyptology and the Diffusion of Culture (Sussex Academic Press, 2012). He is currently investigating the response of writers and intellectuals to the decline in religion
in inter-war Britain. For further details click on Books and CV. For a selection of his reviews of books click on Reviews.
Recreations: Tennis, reading (mainly crime thrillers), music (classical, jazz) and cooking.
His wife Ann is an archaeologist and cultural heritage consultant.