Lawrence Goldman

Lawrence Goldman FRHistS (born 17 June 1957) is an English historian and academic. He is the former director the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (2004 to 2014) and of the Institute of Historical Research (2014 to 2017), University of London. He has a PhD from the University of Cambridge.

Born in London, he read history at Jesus College, Cambridge (1976–79), as an undergraduate. Upon graduation he received a Harkness Fellowship, which enabled him to study history of slavery and American Civil War at Yale University for a year with Ed Morgan, David Montgomery and David Brion Davis. He returned to Cambridge to undertake research in Victorian social science and social policy, and in 1982 he was elected a junior research fellow at Trinity College. In 1985, he moved to Oxford as university lecturer in the Department for Continuing Education. He continues to teach regular adult classes and is president of the Thames and Solent district of the Workers' Educational Association. In 1990, he was appointed to a Fellowship at St Peter's College, where he has also served as admissions tutor and senior dean.

During the academic year 2000–01, he was the university assessor, a senior administrator responsible for student welfare. He has served as chairman of examiners for the Final Honour School of Modern History.

On 1 October 2004, Goldman was appointed editor of the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, published by Oxford University Press, succeeding Brian Harrison. The appointment was for ten years.

Goldman was the director of the University of London's Institute of Historical Research from 2014 to 2017.