The Creation of the Modern World: The Untold Story of the British Enlightenment

Roy Sydney Porter was a British historian noted for his prolific work on the history of medicine. Porter grew up in South London and attended Wilson's School in Camberwell. He won a scholarship to Christ's College, Cambridge, where he studied under J. H. Plumb. His contemporaries included Simon... Schama and Andrew Wheatcroft. He achieved a double starred first and became a junior Fellow in 1968, studying under Robert M. Young and lecturing on the British Enlightenment. In 1972, he moved to Churchill College as the Director of Studies in History, later becoming Dean in 1977. He received his doctorate in 1974, publishing a thesis on the history of geology as a scientific discipline. He was then appointed to the post of Assistant Lecturer in European History at Cambridge University and promoted to Lecturer in European History in 1977. In 1979 he joined the Wellcome Institute for the History of Medicine as a lecturer. In 1993 he became Professor of Social History at the Institute. He briefly served as its Director. In 2000, Porter published The Enlightenment: Britain and the Creation of the Modern World.
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