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{{Infobox academic
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| name = Kim Ati Wagner
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| birth_place = Denmark
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| occupation = Historian
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| website = [https://www.qmul.ac.uk/history/people/academic-staff/profiles/wagnerkima.html Official website]
| education =
| alma_mater = [[University of Cambridge]]
| thesis_title = Thuggee and the 'construction' of crime in early nineteenth century India.
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| thesis_year = 2004
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| doctoral_advisor = [[Christopher Bayly]]
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| discipline = Historian
| sub_discipline = [[Outline of South Asian history|South Asian history]]
| workplaces = Queen Mary University of London
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| notable_works = *''[[Thuggee (book)|Thuggee]]'' (2007)
*''[[The Skull of Alum Bheg]]'' (2017)
*''[[Amritsar 1919]]'' (2019)
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'''Kim Ati Wagner''' is a Danish-British historian of colonial India and the British Empire at [[Queen Mary, University of London]]. He has written a number of books on India, starting with ''Thuggee: Banditry and the British in early nineteenth-century India'' in 2007. He followed that up with a [[source book]] on [[Thuggee]] and has also written on the [[Indian Uprising of 1857|uprising of 1857]] and the [[Amritsar massacre]]. A British citizen, Wagner feels an affinity for India.<ref name="Roy2019" />

==Early life==
Wagner is of Danish origin, but has lived in the United Kingdom for over twenty years. He is named after the leading character from [[Rudyard Kipling]]'s novel ''[[Kim (novel)|Kim]],'' set in British India, and was taken to India by his parents when he was a baby. Wagner says he has visited Amritsar many times and feels that India is "in [his] blood."<ref name=Roy2019>{{Cite web|url=https://www.telegraphindia.com/opinion/the-many-myths-surrounding-jallianwala-bagh/cid/1689053|title=The many myths surrounding Jallianwala Bagh|last=Roy|first=Amit|date=20 April 2019|website=www.telegraphindia.com|language=en|url-status=live|archive-url=|archive-date=|access-date=25 December 2019}}</ref>

==Career==
In 2003, under the supervision of [[Christopher Bayly]], he gained a PhD in [[Outline of South Asian history|South Asian history]] from the [[University of Cambridge]]. He subsequently completed a four-year research fellowship at [[King’s College, Cambridge|King’s College]] there, followed by a two-year research associate post at the [[University of Edinburgh]]. Wagner then became a lecturer in imperial and World history at the [[University of Birmingham]], before being employed at [[Queen Mary, University of London|Queen Mary's]] in 2012. In 2015 he was granted a [[Marie Curie Fellows Association|Marie Skłodowska-Curie Global Fellowship]] working with historian [[Dane Kennedy]] at [[George Washington University]] in the United States, which he finished in 2018.<ref name=qmul>{{Cite web|url=https://www.qmul.ac.uk/history/people/academic-staff/profiles/wagnerkima.html|title=Professor Kim A. Wagner - School of History|website=www.qmul.ac.uk|access-date=9 December 2019}}</ref>

===Thuggee===
His book on [[thuggee|thuggees]], titled ''[[Thuggee (book)|Thuggee: Banditry and the British in early nineteenth-century India]]'', was published in 2007 and was short-listed for the ''History Today'' Book of the Year Award in 2008.<ref name=Wagner2007>[https://searchworks.stanford.edu/view/6973025 Thuggee : banditry and the British in early nineteenth-century India.] Stanford Libraries. Retrieved 13 December 2019.</ref> He followed that up with a source book on thuggees titled ''Stranglers and Bandits: A Historical Anthology of Thuggee'' (2009).<ref>[https://doi.org/10.1017/S0021911810002743 "Stranglers and Bandits: A Historical Anthology of Thuggee. Edited by Kim A. Wagner. New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2009."] [[Cynthia Ann Humes]], ''[[The Journal of Asian Studies]]'', Vol. 69, Issue 4 (November 2010), pp. 1294-1295.</ref>

===Skull of Alum Bheg===
In 2014, he was approached by the owners of the Lord Clyde pub in Kent, who wished to dispose of a skull in their possession. An accompanying note revealed the skull to be that of [[sepoy]] Alum Bheg of the [[Bengal Regiment]], who, following the [[Indian Rebellion of 1857]], was executed in 1858 by being blown from a cannon in [[Sialkot]]. Wagner had the skull examined at the [[Natural History Museum, London|Natural History Museum]] in London, who confirmed its likely authenticity. Subsequently, with no known descendants of Bheg and with no official documents mentioning him, Wagner pieced together the story of the skull using letters written by the relatives and friends of Bheg's victims, in addition to other primary material in England and India.<ref name=Biswas2018>{{Cite news|url=https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-43616597|title=The Indian mutineer's skull found in a UK pub|last=Biswas|first=Soutik|date=5 April 2018|work=[[BBC News]]|access-date=13 December 2019|language=en-GB}}</ref> ''[[The Skull of Alum Bheg: The Life and Death of a Rebel of 1857]]'' was completed and published in 2017.<ref name=Llewellyn-Jones2018>{{Cite journal|last=Llewellyn-Jones|first=Rosie|date=3 July 2018|title=Kim A. Wagner. The Skull of Alum Bheg: The Life and Death of a Rebel of 1857|journal=Asian Affairs|volume=49|issue=3|pages=538–540|doi=10.1080/03068374.2018.1487717|s2cid=165809495|issn=0306-8374}}</ref><ref name=Bender2019>{{Cite journal|last=Bender|first=Jill C.|date=January 2019|title=Kim A. Wagner. The Skull of Alum Bheg: The Life and Death of a Rebel of 1857. New York: Oxford University Press, 2018. Pp. 288. $29.95 (cloth).|journal=[[Journal of British Studies]]|language=en|volume=58|issue=1|pages=253–254|doi=10.1017/jbr.2018.232|issn=0021-9371}}</ref><ref>[http://www.dover-kent.com/lord-clyde-walmer.html Lord Clyde], Dover Kent Archives, 25 July 2019. Retrieved 13 December 2019.</ref><ref name=Newsinger2019>{{Cite journal|last=Newsinger|first=John|date=1 July 2019|title=The Skull of Alum Bheg: the life and death of a rebel of 1857 by Kim A. Wagner|journal=Race & Class|language=en|volume=61|issue=1|pages=110–111|doi=10.1177/0306396818801216|s2cid=198664160|issn=0306-3968}}{{subscription required}}</ref> Wagner later expressed a wish for the skull to be repatriated back to India to be "buried in a respectful manner".<ref name=Biswas2018/>

===Amritsar 1919===
His book, ''[[Amritsar 1919: An Empire of Fear and the Making of a Massacre]]'' (2019), describes how the [[Jallianwalla Bagh Massacre]] was a result of a British fear of another [[Indian rebellion of 1857]].<ref name=NewsingerAmritsar2019>{{Cite journal|last=Newsinger|first=John|date=1 October 2019|title=Review: Amritsar 1919: an empire of fear and the making of a massacre by Kim A. Wagner, Britain's Pacification of Palestine: the British Army, the colonial state, and the Arab Revolt 1936–1939 by Matthew Hughes|journal=Race & Class|language=en|volume=61|issue=2|pages=110–114|doi=10.1177/0306396819871426|issn=0306-3968|doi-access=free}}</ref><ref name=Agarwal2019>{{Cite web|url=https://www.historians.org/publications-and-directories/perspectives-on-history/april-2019/reexamining-amritsar-does-the-historic-massacre-of-1919-warrant-an-apology|title=Reexamining Amritsar {{!}} Perspectives on History {{!}} AHA|last=Agarwal|first=Kritika|date=9 April 2019|website=www.historians.org|url-status=live|archive-url=|archive-date=|access-date=19 December 2019}}</ref> With the book, Wagner aimed to dispel what he saw as myths about the massacre. The book was highly commended by the journalists [[Sathnam Sanghera]]<ref name=Roy2019/> and Trevor Grundy.<ref name="Grundy2019">{{Cite web|url=https://www.politicsweb.co.za/opinion/the-british-empires-most-shameful-day|title=The British Empire's most shameful day|last=Grundy|first=Trevor|date=21 March 2019|website=www.politicsweb.co.za|url-status=live|archive-url=|archive-date=|access-date=12 December 2019}}</ref>

Both Grundy and [[Ferdinand Mount]] compared Wagner's book on the massacre with ''The Amritsar Massacre: The Untold Story of One Fateful Day'' (2011) by [[Nick Lloyd (historian)|Nick Lloyd]] and with [[Nigel Collett]]'s ''The Butcher of Amritsar'' (2005). While Wagner emphasised that it was "brutality" in general that was the "driving principle of the Raj" rather than the personality of individuals,<ref name=Mount2019/> Mount argued that Wagner had underplayed the personality of [[Reginald Dyer|General Dyer]].<ref name="Mount2019">{{Cite journal|url=https://www.lrb.co.uk/v41/n07/ferdinand-mount/they-would-have-laughed|title=They would have laughed|author=Mount, Ferdinand|date=4 April 2019|journal=[[London Review of Books]]|issue=7|volume=41|pages=9–12|issn=0260-9592|author-link=Ferdinand Mount}}</ref>

==Selected publications ==
=== Books ===
* [https://www.palgrave.com/gp/book/9780230547179 ''Thuggee: Banditry and the British in Early Nineteenth-Century India'']. [[Palgrave Macmillan]], Basingstoke, 2007. {{doi|10.1057/9780230590205}}, {{isbn|9781349361540}}
*[https://www.worldcat.org/title/stranglers-and-bandits-a-historical-anthology-of-thuggee/oclc/277205295 ''Stranglers and Bandits: A Historical Anthology of Thuggee'']. [[Oxford University Press]], New Delhi, 2009. (Editor) {{isbn|9780195698152}}
* [https://www.worldcat.org/title/rumours-and-rebels-a-new-history-of-the-indian-uprising-of-1857/oclc/1027787715&referer=brief_results ''Rumours and Rebels: A New History of the Indian Uprising of 1857'']. Peter Lang, Oxford, 2017. {{isbn|9781906165895}}
*[https://books.google.com/books?id=ZWlNDwAAQBAJ ''The Skull of Alum Bheg: The Life and Death of a Rebel of 1857'']. Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2018. {{isbn|9780190870232}}
* [https://www.worldcat.org/title/amritsar-1919-an-empire-of-fear-the-making-of-a-massacre/oclc/1046462732&referer=brief_results ''Amritsar 1919: An Empire of Fear and the Making of a Massacre'']. [[Yale University Press]], New Haven, 2019. {{isbn|9780300200355}}

=== Articles ===
* "Expanding Bullets and Savage Warfare", ''[[History Workshop Journal]]'', Issue 88 (Autumn 2019), pp. 281–287. {{doi|10.1093/hwj/dbz044}}
*[https://reviews.history.ac.uk/review/1224 "Review of Nicholas Lloyd's ''The Amritsar Massacre: The Untold Story of One Fateful Day''"], (review no. 1224)

== References ==
{{Reflist}}

== External links ==
* [https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=QdTKUj8AAAAJ&hl=en Kim A. Wagner at Google Scholar]
* [https://qmul.academia.edu/KimAWagner Kim A. Wagner at Academia.edu]
* [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xO-Uws-5csc An insight into Jallianwala Bagh with Dr Kim Wagner]
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Wagner, Kim A.}}
[[Category:Living people]]
[[Category:Danish historians]]
[[Category:Year of birth missing (living people)]]
[[Category:Historians of India]]
[[Category:Historians of the British Empire]]
[[Category:Alumni of the University of Cambridge]]
[[Category:Academics of Queen Mary University of London]]
[[Category:Danish emigrants to the United Kingdom]]

Kim A. Wagner - Revision history

imported>Citation bot at 03:23, 27 February 2021