Harold James (1956 — ) is a renowned historian, specializing in the history of Germany and European economic history. James is a prolific author, having published dozens of books and articles in his field. He is currently a Professor of History at Princeton University as well as a Professor of International Affairs at the University's Woodrow Wilson School.
Harold James was born and raised in the United Kingdom. He attended the The Perse School in Cambridge. He completed his undergraduate education at Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge and received his Ph.D. at Peterhouse, Cambridge in 1982. At Cambridge University he received the Ellen MacArthur Prize for Economic History. He began teaching at Princeton in 1986. In 2004 the German Historical Institute in Washington, D.C. awarded him the Helmut Schmidt Prize in Economic History. He serves on the editorial committee of the journal World Politics.
James is married to Marzenna Kowalik (1964 — ), a political scientist specializing in Polish-Soviet economic relations. They have three children. Marzenna James is currently a Lecturer in the Department of Politics at Princeton University.
In the earlier part of his career, James focused on modern German history, particularly German financial history in the interwar era. Among his major contributions to the field are a detailed study of the Deutsche Bank, an examination of the role of the Reichsbank in seizing Jewish financial assets during the Nazi era, and a reappraisal of the peculiar nature of the German national identity. James' explanation of the evolution of the German identity places particular emphasis on an 'economic identity' which provided impetus for unification in the early 19th century.In 1992 he was appointed a member of the Independent Commission of Experts (ICE) which was set up by the Swiss parliament to examine the refugee policy of Switzerland during WWII as well as economic and financial relationships between Switzerland and Nazi Germany.
Harold James has written extensively on the economic implications of globalization, drawing comparisons with historical attempts at globalization which ended with the Great Depression in 1929. James argues the Great Depression must not be considered as only an American phenomenon, but instead as a global economic crisis. He examines the contemporary issues associated with globalization in the context of larger economic trends, which were disrupted by the World Wars and the Great Depression.
