View source for David Marshall Lang

{{short description|British historian}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}}
'''David Marshall Lang''' (6 May 1924 – 20 March 1991), was a [[Professor]] of [[Caucasus|Caucasian]] Studies, [[School of Oriental and African Studies]], [[University of London]]. He was one of the most productive [[United Kingdom|British]] scholars who specialized in [[Georgia (country)|Georgian]], [[Armenia]]n and ancient [[Bulgaria]]n history.
== Biography ==
Lang was born in [[Bromley]] and was educated at [[Monkton Combe School]] and [[St John's College, Cambridge|St John’s College]], [[University of Cambridge|Cambridge]] where he was a Major Scholar and later held a Fellowship. As a 20-year-old graduate, he was serving as an officer in [[Iran]] in 1944 when he was appointed as acting Vice-Consul in [[Tabriz]], Iran. He met many of the city's Armenian people and leaders.
In 1949 he was the member of staff for the [[School of Oriental and African Studies]] at [[University of London]]. He began as lecturer in [[Georgian language]], then as reader and in 1964 he became professor of Caucasian studies. In 1953 he held a Senior Fellowship at the Russian Institute of [[Columbia University]] and in 1965 he was a visiting professor in Caucasian Studies at the [[University of California]], [[Los Angeles]]. Between 1962 and 1964 he was honorary secretary of the [[Royal Asiatic Society]] of [[London]].
Lang visited [[Armenian Soviet Socialist Republic|Soviet Armenia]] three times during the 1960s and 1970s. He visited the Soviet Union in December 1963 and was allegedly recruited at that time by the [[KGB]], according to archivist [[Vasili Mitrokhin]], who copied KGB files in Moscow.<ref>[https://www.academia.edu/15177390/Armenians_in_Mitrokhins_KGB_notes Armenians in Mitrokhin's KGB notes]</ref> Mitrokhin also refers to Lang's career as an operative of English counter-intelligence. According to the dates in The Mitrokhin Archive, this would have taken place before Lang was 20 years old.
Historian [[Donald Rayfield]] alleged that Lang befriended [[Alexi Inauri]], the head of the Georgian KGB. Inauri may have persuaded Lang to publicly denounce anti-Soviet dissidents in Georgia.<ref>{{cite book|last=Rayfield|first=Donald|author-link=Donald Rayfield|title=Edge of Empires: A History of Georgia|year=2012|publisher=Reaktion Books|location=London|isbn=978-1780230306|page = 375}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|last1=Edgar|first1=Robert|title=Donald Rayfield on Researching Georgia, Literature & Politics|url=http://georgiatoday.ge/news/7634/Donald-Rayfield-on-Researching-Georgia%2C-Literature-%26-Politics|website=Georgia Today|access-date=28 September 2017|date=21 September 2017|archive-date=22 September 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170922000846/http://georgiatoday.ge/news/7634/Donald-Rayfield-on-Researching-Georgia%2C-Literature-%26-Politics|url-status=dead}}</ref>
For a long time, Lang directed the Caucasian Studies Department at the University of London.<ref>[http://www.nato.int/acad/fellow/94-96/elguja/02.htm ''Georgian Literature in European Scholarship'' by Prof. Elguja Khintibidze]</ref> He lectured in Caucasian languages and history at Cambridge and various universities around the world.<ref>[[Library of Congress]] [https://www.loc.gov/catdir/bios/orion051/2002391106.html website]</ref>
==Selected bibliography==
*''The Wisdom of Balahvar'' (London: George Allen & Unwin Ltd, 1957)
*''The Last Years of the Georgian Monarchy, 1658-1832'' (New York: Columbia University Press, 1957)
*''First Russian Radical, Alexander Radischev, 1749-1802'' (London: George Allen & Unwin, 1959)
*''A Modern History of Georgia'' (London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1962)
*''The Georgians'' (New York: Praeger, 1966)
*''Armenia: Cradle of Civilization'' (London: George Allen & Unwin, 1970)
*''The Peoples of the Hills: Ancient Ararat and Caucasus'' by [[Charles Allen Burney]] and D.M. Lang (London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1971)
*''Bulgarians: From Pagan Times to the Ottoman Conquest'' (London: Thames and Hudson, 1976)
*''Lives and Legends of the Georgian Saints'' (New York: Crestwood, 1976)
*''The Armenians: A People in Exile'' (London: Allen and Unwin, 1981)
*''Armenia and Karabagh: the Struggle for Unity'' (London: Minority Rights Group, 1991)
===''Armenia: Cradle of Civilization''===
His ''Armenia: Cradle of Civilization'' received mixed reviews.<ref>{{cite journal | url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/307202 | jstor=307202 | last1=Ketchian | first1=Sonia | title=Reviewed work: Armenia: Cradle of Civilization, David Marshall Lang | journal=The Slavic and East European Journal | date=1980 | volume=24 | issue=3 | pages=312–314 | doi=10.2307/307202 }}</ref><ref>{{cite journal | url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/29755857 | jstor=29755857 | last1=Glaesser | first1=Gustav | title=Reviewed work: Armenia - Cradle of Civilization, David Marshall Lang | journal=East and West | date=1973 | volume=23 | issue=1/2 | pages=212–216 }}</ref><ref>{{cite journal | url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/614487 | jstor=614487 | author1=P. M. H. | title=Reviewed work: Armenia: Cradle of Civilization, David Marshall Lang | journal=Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London | date=1972 | volume=35 | issue=2 | page=434 }}</ref> Avedis K. Sanjian wrote that its "purpose and scope are not specifically stated" and Lang "attempted to write about practically every aspect of Armenian history and civilization from prehistoric times to the present." It criticized the disproportionate focus on prehistoric Armenia, "occasional untenable conclusions, and frequent injection of irrelevancies and journalistic quotations. On the other hand, the author's deep enthusiasm for his subject, his great facility for condensing and popularizing scholarly research and his lucid style which borders on the romantic, will undoubtedly have a strong appeal to the non-specialist reader."<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Sanjian |first1=Avedis K. |title=Review of Armenia: Cradle of Civilization |journal=Middle East Journal |date=1972 |volume=26 |issue=1 |pages=94 |jstor=4324892 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/4324892 |issn=0026-3141}}</ref> [[Ronald Grigor Suny]] was more critical. He said that the book has noting new to offer as a contribution to scholarship. He added: "Indeed, the frequently flamboyant prose, the nearly complete emphasis on political history and personalities, and the allusions to national characteristics give the text a distinctly old-fashioned quality." Suny argued that Lang overlooked historiographic disputes and controversial issues and did not attempt to analyze the "centrifugal forces operating in Armenian society (the ''naxarar'' system), the influence of geography, the effect of living between great and hostile empires to the east and west, or the weight of Islamic rule."<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Suny |first1=Ronald Grigor |author1-link=Ronald Grigor Suny |title=Review of Armenia: Cradle of Civilization. |journal=Slavic Review |date=1979 |volume=38 |issue=4 |pages=700 |doi=10.2307/2496605 |jstor=2496605 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/2496605 |issn=0037-6779}}</ref>
[[Sebastian Brock]] said it was "somewhat encyclopedic in character". He said the chapters concerning the Armenian Church "do little more than whet the appetite."<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Brock |first1=S. P. |author1-link=Sebastian Brock |title=Review of Armenia: Cradle of Civilization |journal=The Journal of Theological Studies |date=1972 |volume=23 |issue=1 |pages=325 |jstor=23960121 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/23960121 |issn=0022-5185}}</ref> A review in the ''[[Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society]]'' noted that it contains "so little social history", but suggested that it is "the most comprehensive history of Armenia and its culture published in English, and as such fills a definite need. The general reader will be grateful to Professor Lang for having written it."<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Gulbekian |first1=E. V. |title=Review of Armenia, Cradle of Civilization |journal=[[Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society]] |date=1973 |issue=1 |pages=69–71 |doi=10.1017/S0035869X00130576 |jstor=25203424 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/25203424 |issn=0035-869X}}</ref>
== Notes ==
{{reflist}}
== See also ==
*[[Kartvelian studies]]
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Lang, David Marshall}}
[[Category:1924 births]]
[[Category:1991 deaths]]
[[Category:Academics of SOAS University of London]]
[[Category:Alumni of St John's College, Cambridge]]
[[Category:British expatriates in Iran]]
[[Category:Historians of Georgia (country)]]
[[Category:Armenian studies scholars]]
[[Category:People educated at Monkton Combe School]]
[[Category:20th-century British historians]]