E. Roger Owen

E. Roger Owen is the A.J. Meyer Professor Emeritus of Middle East History at Harvard University, where he was Director of the Center for Middle Eastern Studies from 1996 to 1999. He is a noted economic and political historian whose scholarship ranges across the entire Middle East and North Africa and who writes effectively both for specialized and general audiences. He is best known for his contributions to the understanding of the economic history of the Middle East since 1800. His research interests include the economic, social and political history of the Middle East, especially Egypt, from 1800 to the present, as well as the theories of imperialism, including military occupations. His books include "Cotton and the Egyptian Economy, 1820-1914" (1969), "The Middle East in the World Economy, 1800-1914" (1981), "State, Power and Politics in the Making of the Modern Middle East" (1992), and, with Sevket Pamuk, "A History of the Middle East Economies in the Twentieth Century" (1999). His biography Lord Cromer: Victorian Imperialist, Edwardian Proconsul, published in 2005, is the definitive life of the subject. Owen received the B.A. degree (1959) and D.Phil. (1965) in economic history from the University of Oxford.