Jan de Vries, professor of history and economics

Jan de Vries is a professor of history and a professor of economics. He also has served as chair of UC Berkeley’s history department, dean of social sciences in the College of Letters & Science, and as vice provost for academic affairs.

His research interests have ranged from European agrarian history and historical demography and urbanization, and environmental and climate history to the history of consumer behavior. He has written six books and many articles, most recently The Industrious Revolution (Cambrdige University Press, 2008). His current interests include the history of consumer behavior and topics in global history.

De Vries is a past president of the Economic History Association and served as editor of the Journal of Economic History. He is the recipient of the Woodrow Wilson and Guggenheim fellowships and has held grants from the National Science Foundation and National Institutes of Health. He also has held visiting fellowships to the Netherlands Institute for Advanced Study, the Getty Center for the History of Art and the Humanities, and All Souls College at Oxford University. He has been elected to membership in the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the American Philosophical Society, the British Academy, and the Royal Netherlands Academy of Sciences. He is the 2000 recipient of the A.H. Heiniken Prize in History.