Biography
James Thomson is Emeritus Professor in History.
His first research was on the French Old Regime, his doctorate (Reading 1976) being a study on the Languedocian cloth industry, published in 1982 as Clermont-de-Lodeve, 1633-1789, Fluctuations in the Prosperity of a Languedocian Cloth-Making Town (Cambridge). In the 1980s he shifted to working on early Catalan industrialization, publishing L'industria d'indianes a Barcelona del segle XVIII (L'Avenc) in 1990 and a A Distinctive Industrialization. Cotton in Barcelona, 1728-1832 (Cambridge) in 1992 which was awarded the Catalan Economics prize and published in Catalan in 1994 as Els origens de la industrialitzacio a Catalunya. El coto a Barcelona, 1728-1832 (Edicions 62). Following this he worked on the history of decline, publishing Decline in History. The European Experience (Polity, 1998). In 2000 and 2005 he gained research awards from the Economic and Social Research Council and Arts and Humanities Research Council for projects entitled "Techniques and Social Relationships in Industrializing Catalonia" and "Hispanic Enterprise in the Age of Enlightenment: rhe Trade in American Cotton". Results have been published in journal (see publications list). At present he is writing a History of Catalonia for publication within Cambridge's Concise History series.
He was visiting professor at Barcelona's Autonomaous 5X社区视频 in 1991, at its Pompeu i Fabra 5X社区视频 in 2000), and at Lyon-Lumière, France (1996/7), since 2004 he has been a member of the Arts and Humanities Research Council's Peer Review College and Catalonia's AGAUR (Agencia de Gestio d'Ajuts Universitaris i de Recerca). He is a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society, Honorary member of the Societat Catalana d'Economia (section of the Institut d'Estudis Catalans), "Investigador Adscrito" at the Centre d'Estudis Històrics Internacionals, Barcelona and member of the International Advisory Board for the journal Revista Recerques. Historia,Economia,Cultura.