Pearson, M.N. 1941–

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Pearson, M.N. 1941–

(Michael Pearson, Michael N. Pearson, Michael Naylor Pearson)

PERSONAL:

Born May 30, 1941, in Morrinsville, New Zealand. Education: University of Auckland, B.A., 1963, M.A., 1965; University of Michigan, Ph.D., 1971.

ADDRESSES:

Home—Lennox Head, New South Wales, Australia.

CAREER:

Historian and educator. University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, instructor, 1970-71, then assistant professor of history and South Asian studies; University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia, began as lecturer, became professor of history, 1992-2001; professor emeritus, 2001—. Southern Cross University, adjunct professor, 1996-97; Brown University, visiting professor, 2000; Jawaharlal Nehru University, visiting professor, 2007; University of Technology, Sydney, adjunct professor.

MEMBER:

Asian Studies Association of Australia, Australian Academy of Humanities (fellow), Oriental Society of Australia (fellow).

AWARDS, HONORS:

Wattamull Prize, best book on South Asian history, 1977, for Merchants and Rulers in Gujarat: The Response to the Portuguese in the Sixteenth Century; Port Cities and Intruders was designated an "outstanding academic book" by Choice, 1998.

WRITINGS:

Merchant and Rulers in Gujarat: The Response to the Portuguese in the Sixteenth Century, University of California Press (Berkeley, CA), 1976.

(Editor, with Blair B. King) The Age of Partnership: Europeans in Asia before Dominion, University Press of Hawaii (Honolulu, HI), 1979.

Coastal Western India: Studies from the Portuguese Records, Concept (New Delhi, India), 1981.

(Editor) Legitimacy and Symbols: The South Asian Writings of F.W. Buckler, Center for South and Southeast Asian Studies, University of Michigan (Ann Arbor, MI), 1985.

(Editor, with Ashin Das Gupta) India and the Indian Ocean, 1500-1800, Oxford University Press (New York, NY), 1987.

The Portuguese in India, Cambridge University Press (New York, NY), 1987.

Before Colonialism: Theories on Asian-European Relations, 1500-1750, Oxford University Press (New York, NY), 1988.

(Under name Michael Pearson; with Ian Bickerton and others) 43 Days: The Gulf War, Text Publishing (East Melbourne, Australia), 1991.

(With Ian Bickerton) The Arab-Israeli Conflict: A History, 2nd edition, Longman Cheshire (Melbourne, Australia), 1991.

Pious Passengers: The Hajj in Earlier Times, Sterling (New Delhi, India), 1994.

Pilgrimage to Mecca: The Indian Experience, 1500-1800, Markus Wiener (Princeton, NJ), 1996.

(Editor) Spices in the Indian Ocean World, Variorum (Brookfield, VT), 1996.

Port Cities and Intruders: The Swahili Coast, India, and Portugal in the Early Modern Era, Johns Hopkins University Press (Baltimore, MD), 1998.

(Under name Michael Pearson) The Indian Ocean, Routledge (London, England), 2003.

The World of the Indian Ocean, 1500-1800: Studies in Economic, Social, and Cultural History, Ashgate Publishers (Burlington, VT), 2005.

(Coeditor) Metahistory: History Questioning History, Nova Vega (Lisbon, Portugal), 2007.

Contributor of nearly fifty articles to periodicals, including Indian Economic and Social History Review, Journal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient, Journal of Asian Studies, and Modern Asian Studies.

SIDELIGHTS:

M.N. Pearson is a noted scholar in the field of South Asian and Portuguese history during the age of colonial expansion. Among his books, Port Cities and Intruders: The Swahili Coast, India, and Portugal in the Early Modern Era received positive critical attention. Noting that the subject is a challenging one, Edward A. Alpers, writing in Historian, cited Pearson's ability to "boldly take … on the complex history of coastal East Africa during an especially dramatic period that witnessed the coming together of two major pre-modern world systems." Noting that the work is more useful for an academic readership, Ivana Elbl nonetheless recommended the volume, writing in her Canadian Journal of History review that the author's "command of theory and historiography, and his capacity for empirical research are both inspiring and generate respect." Pearson's "intrepid contribution deserves recognition in the growing literature on world history," Alpers concluded.

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

American Historical Review, October, 1990, Robert Eric Frykenberg, review of The Portuguese in India, p. 1270; December, 1998, Richard M. Eaton, review of Pilgrimage to Mecca: The Indian Experience, 1500-1800, p. 1675; June, 1999, Randall L. Pouwels, review of Port Cities and Intruders: The Swahili Coast, India, and Portugal in the Early Modern Era, p. 870.

Canadian Journal of History, August, 2000, Ivana Elbl, review of Port Cities and Intruders, p. 392.

Historian, spring, 2000, Edward A. Alpers, review of Port Cities and Intruders, p. 678.

History Today, December, 1988, Francis Robinson, review of The Portuguese in India, p. 58.

Pacific Affairs, winter, 1999, Balkrishna Govind Gohkale, review of The Portuguese in India, p. 587.