POSTAN, MICHAEL MOISSEY

POSTAN, MICHAEL MOISSEY (1899–1981), British economic historian. Postan, who was born in Tighina, Bessarabia, began his teaching career in 1927 at University College, London. He was a lecturer on economic history at the London School of Economics from 1931 to 1935, when he became a lecturer at Cambridge University. From 1938 to 1965 he held the professorship of economic history at Cambridge and from 1934 to 1960 served as editor of the Economic History Review at a time when this discipline grew strongly in size. Postan's lucid style, searching inquiries and comprehensive analyses of economic problems of the past made him one of the world's leading historians in his field. His major contribution, in addition to many publications, was the coeditorship of the Cambridge Economic History of Europe from 1952 onward. Postan received a knighthood in 1980. -ADD. BIBLIOGRAPHY: ODNB Online. (Joachim O. Ronall)