Peregrine Horden is professor in medieval history at Royal Holloway, University of London. Horden's research is in the area of Mediterranean cities and medicine in the Middle Ages.[1] He is a Fellow of All Souls College, Oxford.[2]
The publication of his book The Corrupting Sea: A Study of Mediterranean History (co-written with Nicholas Purcell) was hailed as a 'notable intellectual event'.[3] The book's main thesis is that the Mediterranean is a region made up of micro-regions.[4] The book argues that the Mediterranean ought to be seen in terms of the ecological lines of force linking countless small regions and micro-economies together rather than in terms of a few famous metropoleis. Horden and Purcell stress the longues durées and insist that the different themes of history, i.e. politics, culture, economy, ideas and institutions must be studied in close association.