STAVRIANOS, Leften Stavros 1913-2004

OBITUARY NOTICE—

See index for CA sketch: Born February 5, 1913, in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada; died of respiratory failure, March 23, 2004, in La Jolla, CA. Historian, educator, and author. A professor of history, Stavrianos was considered one of the founders of the field of world history and was a noted expert on modern Greece and the Balkans. His undergraduate studies were completed at the University of British Columbia in 1933; he then received an M.A. from Clark University in 1934, followed three years later by a Ph.D. from the same institution. Stavrianos's academic career began at Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario, where he lectured for a year before moving on to Smith College in Massachusetts in 1939. From 1944 to 1945, he served with the Office of Strategic Services, returning to Smith College as an assistant professor of history. In 1946, he joined the Northwestern University faculty as an associate professor, becoming a full professor of history in 1956 and retiring in 1973 as professor emeritus. Though retired, Stavrianos wished to maintain his connections with academia; therefore, he spent his remaining years as an adjunct professor at the University of California—San Diego, beginning in 1973. Left-leaning in his philosophy, Stavrianos believed that capitalism had a negative and exploitive impact on civilization because it can only survive by increasingly using up resources. As an educator and writer, he further felt that a complete understanding of history is not possible without being informed about current events as well. Among Stavrianos's published writings are Greece: The War and Aftermath (1945), The Balkans, 1815-1914 (1963), The World to 1500: A Global History (1970; second edition, 1975; published as A Global History: From Prehistory to the Twenty-first Century, 1999), and Lifelines from Our Past: A New World History (1989).

OBITUARIES AND OTHER SOURCES:

ONLINE

Observer Online,http://www.northwestern.edu/observer/ (April 29, 2004).

SignOnSanDiego.com,http://signonsandiego.printthis.clickability.com/ (April 4, 2004).