John Tosh

Who is John Tosh?

John A. Tosh is a British historian and Professor of History at Roehampton University. He gained his BA at the University of Oxford and his MA at the University of Cambridge. Tosh was awarded his PhD by the University of London in 1973; his thesis topic being Political authority among the Langi of northern Uganda, circa 1800-1939 . He is a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society. In 1987-88 he held a visiting appointment at the University of California, Davis. At Roehampton University he teaches History, specifically "Reading and Writing History." He was appointed Vice-President of the Royal Historical Society from 1999 - 2002. He has also published several works on the history of masculinity in nineteenth-century Britain. He is currently preparing a critical analysis of the social applications of historical perspective in contemporary Britain.

Tosh's claim to originality and notability rests largely on his work as a historian and historiographer. He has taken a leading role as a public historian over the past fifteen years or so in developing the history of masculinity and ensuring it has become an important dimension of social and cultural history.