Finley, M. I.

Finley, M. I. (b. Moses Finklestein) (1912–86) historian; born in New York City. A victim of the McCarthy era, he was fired by Rutgers in 1952 and emigrated to Cambridge, England, where after changing his name he became lecturer (1955–70), professor (1970–79), and master of Darwin College (1976–82). He became a British subject in 1962 and was knighted in 1979. Trained in history and law, and greatly influenced by Marx and Weber, he wrote pioneering works in social and economic history including The World of Odysseus (1954), Early Greece: The Bronze and Archaic Ages (1970), The Ancient Economy (1973), and The Use and Abuse of History (1975).