Ian Tyrrell

Ian Robert Tyrrell (born 1947) is an Australian historian who is notable for his work on American exceptionalism and transnational history. Tyrrell was Scientia Professor of History at the University of New South Wales, Sydney until his retirement in July 2012 and is now an emeritus Professor of History there. He is the author of twelve books, including True Gardens of the Gods: Californian-Australian Environmental Reform, 1860 –1930 and Historians in Public: The Practice of American History, 1890-1970. His main research areas include American history, environmental history, and historiography. He was among the first historians to popularise the idea of transnational history.

Born in Brisbane, Queensland, Tyrrell completed a BA Honours Degree at the University of Queensland and a PhD at Duke University, where he was a Fulbright Scholar and James B. Duke Fellow. Tyrrell was editor of the Australasian Journal of American Studies from 1991 to 1996, and President of the Australian and New Zealand American Studies Association from 2002 to 2006. Tyrrell is a Fellow of the Australian Academy of the Humanities and was awarded a Commonwealth of Australia Centenary Medal in 2003. He has been a visiting professor at the Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales in Paris and Joyce Appleby (Visiting) Professor of United States History at the University of California, Los Angeles, in fall 2009. He was the Harold Vyvyan Harmsworth Professor of American History in the University of Oxford in 2010-11 and was appointed a Professorial Fellow of The Queen's College, Oxford University.