Mike Dash (born 1963) is a Welsh writer, historian and researcher. He is best known for books and articles dealing with dramatic episodes in history.
Mike Dash | |
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Born | 1963 (age 58–59) |
Occupation | Writer, historian and researcher |
Nationality | British |
Alma mater | University of Cambridge King's College London (PhD) |
Dash was born in London. He attended Peterhouse, a college at the University of Cambridge particularly noted for teaching history,[1][2] and completed postgraduate work at King's College London, where he obtained a Ph.D.
Dash authored a series of books covering incidents in the history of the Dutch East India Company, the Netherlands, India under British rule, and New York during the Progressive Era. Each focuses on a single event or series of events, among them the wreck of the East Indiaman Batavia, the Dutch tulip mania of 1634–1637, and the early years of the American Mafia. More recently he has become known as the author of a wide-ranging weekly historical blog, "Past Imperfect", written for the Smithsonian Institution. In 2014, his blog post on the Lykov family, "Lost in the Taiga," was named one of "Nearly 100 Fantastic Pieces of Journalism" by The Atlantic.[3]
Dash's most recent book, The First Family, is a new history of Giuseppe Morello and the establishment of the Mafia in the United States. He began writing for the Smithsonian in July 2011 when the Institution acquired his history site, A Blast from the Past, shortly after the History News Network awarded it the 2010 Cliopatria prize for history blogging.[4][5] In addition to blogging, Dash regularly contributes to r/AskHistorians, and since January 2019 he has republished material written for AskHistorians on his personal blog's "Ask Mike" page.[6]
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