Timothy Garton Ash

Timothy Garton Ash CMG FRSA FRHistS FRSL (born 12 July 1955) is a British historian, author and commentator. He is Professor of European Studies emeritus at the University of Oxford and a Senior Fellow of Stanford University's Hoover Institution. Most of his work has been concerned with the contemporary history of Europe, with a special focus on Central and Eastern Europe. In 1989, George Kennan described him as a 'historian of the present'.

He has written about the former Communist regimes of that region, their experience with the secret police, the Revolutions of 1989, and the transformation of the former Eastern Bloc states into member states of the European Union. He has also examined the role of Europe in the world and the challenge of combining political freedom and diversity, especially in relation to free speech.