Erik Olssen

Erik Olssen
Born (1941-12-14) 14 December 1941 (age 82)
Hamilton, New Zealand
TitleEmeritus Professor
Academic background
Alma materDuke University
ThesisDissent from normalcy: progressives in Congress, 1918–1925 (1970)
Academic work
DisciplineHistory
Sub-discipline
  • Labour and social history of New Zealand
  • History of Otago
InstitutionsUniversity of Otago
Notable works
  • John A. Lee (1977)[1]
  • A History of Otago (1983)[2]
  • The Red Feds : Revolutionary Industrial Unionism and the New Zealand Federation of Labour 1908–14 (1988)[3]
  • Building the New World: Work, Politics and Society in Caversham 1880s–1920s (1995)[4]
Notable ideasRelationships between politics, society, ideas, culture, and economics shape the lives of individuals and their societies

Erik Newland Olssen ONZM FRSNZ (born 14 December 1941) is a New Zealand historian whose research focuses on the linkages between social structures, politics, and the world of ideas at four spatial domains – the local, provincial, national and global. His early research examined labour history, especially the working-class mobilisation in New Zealand from 1880 to 1940 and included a study of Caversham, regarded as one of the most industrialised areas of New Zealand at that time. He has published several articles and monographs, including a biography of John A. Lee, and a history of Otago. Olssen was an academic in the Department of History at the University of Otago from 1969 until his retirement in 2002, when he was conferred with the title of emeritus professor.

  1. ^ Cite error: The named reference Olssen Full Lee bio was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  2. ^ Cite error: The named reference Olssen History of Otago was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  3. ^ Cite error: The named reference Olssen was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  4. ^ Cite error: The named reference Olssen New World Book was invoked but never defined (see the help page).