Jan Romein
| Jan Romein | |
|---|---|
Romein (Amsterdam, 1947)
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| Native name | Jan Marius Romein |
| Born |
30 October 1893 Rotterdam |
| Died | 16 July 1962 (aged 68) Amsterdam |
| Academic background | |
| Alma mater | University of Leiden |
| Thesis title | Dostojewski in de Westersche Kritiek. Een hoofdstuk uit de geschiedenis van de literaire roem |
| Thesis year | 1924 |
| School or tradition | Marxist historiography |
| Doctoral advisor | N. van Wijk |
| Influences | Johan Huizinga,, Arnold J. Toynbee |
| Academic work | |
| Institutions | University of Amsterdam |
| Doctoral students | Bernard Slicher van Bath |
| Main interests | Cultural history, social history, literature |
| Notable works | De Lage Landen bij de Zee, Erflaters van onze beschaving (both with Annie Romein-Verschoor), The Watershed of Two Eras. Europe in 1900. |
Jan Marius Romein (30 October 1893 – 16 July 1962) was a Dutch historian, journalist and literary scholar. A Marxist and a student of Huizinga, Romein is remembered for his popularizing books of Dutch national history, jointly authored with his wife Annie Romein-Verschoor. His work has been translated into English, German, French, Indonesian and Japanese.
Born in Rotterdam, Romein married the writer and historian Annie Romein-Verschoor (1895–1978) on 14 August 1920.
Romein began writing while studying humanities at the University of Leiden (1914–1920). Of his professors the historian Johan Huizinga inspired him the most. During his studies and impressed by the First World War and the Russian Revolution he became interested in Marxism. He translated Franz Mehring's biography on Karl Marx into Dutch (1921; with an introductory essay). After the couple moved to Amsterdam in 1921, he became an editor of the daily De Tribune of the young Communistische Partij Holland (CPH, Communist Party of Holland). In addition, he worked as a freelance writer and translator. Already in 1916-1918 he published a Dutch translation of Romain Rolland's Jean Christophe (10 vols., with an introductory essay). In 1924 he received his doctoral degree, with the highest distinction, at the University of Leiden with the dissertation Dostoyevsky in the Eyes of Western Critics. In 1927 he left the communist party, but he remained interested in Marxism and in the political development of the Soviet Union and of Asia. After publishing a book on the history of the Eastern Roman Empire (Byzantium, 1928) he translated and edited the Harmsworth's Universal History of the World into Dutch, in co-operation with other historians (1929–1932, 9 vols.), with three added chapters written by himself. His first book publication in the field of Dutch history was a pioneering study on the history of Dutch historical writing during the Middle Ages (1932). His most famous books include a history of The Low Countries (1934) and a four-volume work with 36 short biographies of important Dutch (1938–1940), both in cooperation with his wife and fellow historian Annie Romein-Verschoor. In 1939, Romein was appointed professor of history at the University of Amsterdam. He survived World War II after being held hostage as a prisoner for three months by the German police in the notorious Amersfoort police detention camp, and returned to writing and teaching. In 2011 Jan Romein and his wife were posthumously awarded the title "Righteous among the Nations" by Yad Vashem in Jerusalem, for offering a hiding place to a persecuted Jewish fellow-citizen during the German occupation.
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