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{{Short description|American historian (born 1950)}}
'''Michael Herbert Fisher''' (born 1950) is emeritus Robert S. Danforth Professor of History at [[Oberlin College]]. He has published extensively about the interplay between Europeans and South Asians in South Asia and Europe. His three most widely held books are: ''The Travels of Dean Mahomet: An Eighteenth Century Journey through India'', ''Migration: A World History'', and ''A Short History of the Mughal Empire''.<ref>{{cite web |title=Fisher, Michael Herbert 1950- |url=https://www.worldcat.org/wcidentities/lccn-n85106975 |website=WorldCat}}</ref>

==Biography==
===Early life===
Michael Fisher was born in 1950 to Roswita Hoffman 'Roz' Fisher and Robert Fisher. They had one other son, James.<ref name="contemporary">{{cite encyclopedia |title=Michael H. Fisher |encyclopedia=Gale Literature: Contemporary Authors |publisher=Gale |url=https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/H1000204837/BIC?u=wikipedia&sid=bookmark-BIC&xid=144ced88 |access-date=December 20, 2021 |year=2012 |via=Gale in Context: Biography |url-access=subscription}}</ref><ref name="br5May2014">{{cite news |title=Roswita Hoffman 'Roz' Fisher |url=https://www.wataugademocrat.com/blowingrocket/obituaries/roswita-hoffman-roz-fisher/article_508eb187-0edb-5fe2-8942-df0b6038b225.html |location=Blowing Rock, North Carolina |work=The Blowing Rocket |date=May 5, 2014 |type=Obituary}}</ref>

In 1972, Fisher graduated from [[Trinity College (Connecticut)|Trinity College]] in Hartford, Connecticut, with a B.A. degree, and thereafter entered the [[University of Chicago]]. There he received an M.A. in 1973 and a Ph.D. in 1978 for his dissertation ''The Imperial Court and the Province: A Social and Administrative History of Pre-British Awadh (1775-1856)''.<ref name="cv">{{cite web |title=Michael H. Fisher CV |url=https://www.oberlin.edu/sites/default/files/content/biography/cv-file/michael_h_fisher_c.v.pdf |website=Oberlin College}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Holdings: The Imperial Court and the Province: A Social and Administrative History of Pre-British Awadh (1775-1856) |url=http://pi.lib.uchicago.edu/1001/cat/bib/208430 |website=The University of Chicago Library Catalog}}</ref>

The same year, Fisher joined the faculty at [[Western Washington University]] as an assistant professor in the Department of Liberal Studies. Nine years later, his first book, ''A Clash of Cultures: Awadh, the British, and the Mughals'', was published. [[Thomas R. Metcalf]], in a review for ''[[The Journal of Asian Studies]]'', praised it as "an excellent introduction to one of the most fascinating of India's dynasties", "carefully researched and eminently readable".<ref>{{cite journal |last=Metcalf |first=Thomas R. |author-link=Thomas R. Metcalf |date=May 1989 |title=A Clash of Cultures: Awadh, the British, and the Mughals. by Michael H. Fisher |journal=The Journal of Asian Studies |volume=48 |issue=2 |type=Review |pages=422–423 |jstor=2057448}}</ref> [[Sarah Ansari]], writing in ''[[Pacific Affairs]]'', called the work a valuable addition to the scholarship on the period, but was occasionally disappointed "that the information being provided does not quite match up to the significance assigned to it".<ref>{{cite journal |last=Ansari |first=Sarah |author-link=Sarah Ansari |date=Winter 1989–1990 |title=A Clash of Cultures: Awadh, The British and the Mughals. by Michael H. Fisher |journal=Pacific Affairs |volume=62 |issue=4 |type=Review |pages=565–566 |jstor=2759696}}</ref>

===Oberlin years===
Fisher had become an associate professor by 1990,<ref name="cv" /> when [[Oberlin College]] hired him to teach South Asian history, a concentration never theretofore taught at the college.<ref>{{cite news |last=Marks |first=Hara |date=April 13, 1990 |title=History department gets professor on Asia |url=https://cdm15963.contentdm.oclc.org/digital/collection/p15963coll9/id/150997/rec/4 |work=The Oberlin Review |page=2}}</ref> By then he had also married [[Paula Richman]], a professor specializing in South Asian religions, who had taught at Western Washington University before joining the Oberlin faculty in 1985.<ref>{{cite news |date=August 30, 1990 |title=New Faces |url=https://cdm15963.contentdm.oclc.org/digital/collection/p15963coll11/id/6930/rec/20 |location=Oberlin, Ohio |work=The Observer |page=3}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |last=Leung |first=Adrian |date=February 14, 1997 |title=Lisa Crawford, Paula Richman, and Robert Shannon Are Honored with Endowed Professorships |url=https://cdm15963.contentdm.oclc.org/digital/collection/p15963coll11/id/7614/rec/8 |location=Oberlin, Ohio |work=The Observer |page=2}}</ref> In 1991, Oxford University Press published Fisher's book, ''Indirect Rule in India: Residents and the Residency System, 1764-1858'', to mixed reviews. [[P. J. Marshall]], writing in ''[[The English Historical Review]]'', commended it as a "valuable study of the process of imperial expansion".<ref>{{cite journal |last=Marshall |first=P. J. |author-link=P. J. Marshall |date=April 1995 |title=Indirect Rule in India. Residents and the Residency System, 1764-1858 by Michael H. Fisher |journal=The English Historical Review |volume=110 |issue=436 |type=Review |pages=501–502 |jstor=576108}}</ref> [[John M. MacKenzie]], in a review for ''[[The Historian (journal)|The Historian]]'', although acknowledging that "there is much that is admirable in this study", wrote that "there is little here to stimulate the imagination, nothing about personalities, incidents, or ideas. It is curiously bloodless in its impressiveness, representing for this reviewer a bland school of history from which historians have mercifully moved on".<ref>{{cite journal |last=MacKenzie |first=John M. |author-link=John M. MacKenzie |date=Spring 1995 |title=Indirect Rule in India: Residents and the Residency System, 1764-1858. By Michael H. Fisher |journal=The Historian |volume=57 |issue=3 |type=Review |pages=621–622 |doi=10.1111/j.1540-6563.1995.tb02022.x}}</ref>

Fisher published, in 1996, ''The First Indian Author in English: Dean Mahomed (1759-1851) in India, Ireland, and England'', followed a year later by the related ''The Travels of Dean Mahomet: An Eighteenth Century Journey through India''. Popular and academic reviewers alike widely praised Fisher's choice of topic and the context he adds to [[Dean Mahomed]]'s writing. [[William Dalrymple (historian)|William Dalrymple]], in a review for British magazine ''[[The Spectator]]'', said the fascinating story overcame "Professor Fisher's plodding academese".<ref>{{cite magazine |last=Dalrymple |first=William |author-link=William Dalrymple (historian) |date=January 3, 1998 |title=An Indian with a triple first |url=http://archive.spectator.co.uk/article/3rd-january-1998/23/an-indian-with-a-triple-first |url-access=subscription |magazine=The Spectator |page=23}}</ref> ''[[The Sunday Times]]'' contributor [[Anthony Sattin]] wrote that "Fisher's style is academic and far from populist, but the tale he has to tell is extraordinary".<ref>{{cite news |last=Sattin |first=Anthony |author-link=Anthony Sattin |date=September 28, 1997 |title=The Original Spice Boy |work=The Sunday Times |page=Books 10}}</ref> Further favorable reviews came from [[Stephen F. Dale]] and [[Narasingha Sil|Narasingha P. Sil]].<ref>{{cite journal |last=Dale |first=Stephen F. |author-link=Stephen Dale |date=Summer 1999 |title=The Travels of Dean Mahomet. By Michael H. Fisher |journal=The Historian |volume=61 |issue=4 |type=Review |pages=934–935 |doi=10.1111/j.1540-6563.1995.tb02022.x}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last=Sil |first=Narasingha P. |author-link=Narasingha Sil |date=August 1999 |title=The Travels of Dean Mahomet: An Eighteenth-Century Journey through India by Michael H. Fisher |journal=International Journal of Hindu Studies |volume=3 |issue=2 |type=Review |pages=205–206 |jstor=20106654}}</ref>

Fisher served as chair of the history department from 1997 to 2001, a period in which the department was reshaped by unusually high faculty turnover, including the retirements of [[Geoffrey Blodgett]], [[Marcia Colish]], and [[Robert Soucy]],<ref>{{cite news |last=Miller-Davenport |first=Sarah |date=September 22, 2000 |title=High Faculty Turnover Changes Face of Oberlin |url=https://cdm15963.contentdm.oclc.org/digital/collection/p15963coll9/id/145778/rec/5 |work=The Oberlin Review |page=3}}</ref> and the departure of assistant professor Moon-Ho Jung for the University of Washington.<ref>{{cite news |last=Leung |first=Adrian |date=May 4, 2001 |title=History Prof. Resigns; Concerns Over Position Future |url=https://cdm15963.contentdm.oclc.org/digital/collection/p15963coll9/id/146232/rec/6 |work=The Oberlin Review |page=4}}</ref> Fisher was appointed the Robert S. Danforth Professor in History in 2002.<ref name="contemporary" /><ref name="cv" />

After his term as department chair, new books followed about every three years. Co-authored with Shompa Lahiri and Shindar Thandi, ''A South Asian History of Britain: Four Centuries of Peoples from the Indian Subcontinent'' was described by [[Keith Laybourn]] in journal ''[[History: The Journal of the Historical Association|History]]'' as a "superb survey of South Asians in Britain".<ref>{{cite journal |last=Laybourn |first=Keith |author-link=Keith Laybourn |date=July 2008 |title=A South-Asian History of Britain: Four Centuries of Peoples from the Indian Subcontinent. By Michael H. Fisher, Shompa Lahiri and Shinder Thandi |journal=History |volume=93 |issue=311 |type=Review |pages=444–445 |doi=10.1111/j.1468-229X.2008.431_47.x |jstor=24428462}}</ref> It was praised by [[Francis Robinson]] in ''[[The Economic History Review]]'' for telling the story of South Asians in Britain well and "not shy[ing] away from some of the difficulties and nuances".<ref>{{cite journal |last=Robinson |first=Francis |author-link=Francis Robinson |date=February 2008 |title=Michael H. Fisher, Shompa Lahiri, and Shinder Thandi, ''A south-Asian history of Britain: four centuries of people from the Indian sub-continent'' |journal=The Economic History Review |volume=61 |issue=1 |type=Review |pages=242–243 |doi=10.1111/j.1468-0289.2007.00419_10.x |jstor=40057572}}</ref>

''The Inordinately Strange Life of Dyce Sombre: Victorian Anglo Indian M.P. and Chancery 'Lunatic{{'}}'', a biography of colorful character [[David Ochterlony Dyce Sombre]], was Fisher's second book to attract wide attention from both the academic and non-academic press. William Dalrymple, writing in ''[[The Observer]]'' said it "throws a fascinating light on the degree of hybridity and crosscultural contact possible during the period, as well as the limits that Victorian England eventually imposed on such cultural crossings".<ref>{{cite news |last=Dalrymple |first=William |author-link=William Dalrymple (historian) |date=August 1, 2010 |title=The Inordinately Strange Life of Dyce Sombre by Michael H Fisher |url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2010/aug/01/inordinately-strange-life-dyce-sombre-review |work=The Observer}}</ref> [[Sumita Mukherjee]], in a review for the ''[[Journal of Colonialism and Colonial History]]'', said "Fisher paints vivid character studies" in "a densely packed book about Mughal courts, British colonial society in the nineteenth century, global cosmopolitanism, British electoral politics, the law and lunacy".<ref>{{cite journal |last=Mukherjee |first=Sumita |author-link=Sumita Mukherjee |date=Winter 2010 |title=The Inordinately Strange Life of Dyce Sombre: Victorian Anglo-Indian MP and Chancery 'Lunatic' |journal=Journal of Colonialism and Colonial History |volume=11 |issue=3 |type=Review |pages=242–243 |doi=10.1353/cch.2010.0013}}</ref>

===Later life===
Fisher's mother died in [[Blowing Rock, North Carolina]], in 2014, having been predeceased by Fisher's father.<ref name="br5May2014" /> Fisher retired from Oberlin College in 2016,<ref name="cv" /> and he and Richman moved to [[Wellfleet, Massachusetts]], on Cape Cod,<ref name="pi5Mar2020">{{cite news |last=Miller |first=Edward |date=March 5, 2020 |title=Conservation Work Lags With Volunteer Shortage |url=https://provincetownindependent.org/news/2020/03/05/conservation-work-lags-with-volunteer-shortage/ |work=The Provincetown Independent}}</ref> where her family has roots.<ref>{{cite news |title=Obituaries |work=Cape Cod Times |date=July 6, 2000 |quote=Doris (Richmond) Richman, 74, of Wellfleet, died Sunday ... Surviving besides her husband are a son ... and a daughter, Paula Richman of Oberlin, Ohio.}}</ref> He is on the Wellfleet Conservation Trust board of trustees and volunteers on the town's conservation commission.<ref name="pi5Mar2020" />

In 2018, Cambridge University Press published his book ''An Environmental History of India: From Earliest Times to the Twenty-First Century''. [[David Arnold (historian)|David Arnold]], reviewing it for ''The English Historical Review'', found "frustratingly little about the environment as such". He criticized Fisher's overemphasis on the political narrative – the personalities of rulers and the success or failure of state policies – "while ignoring or giving only passing attention to environmental crises and change."<ref>{{cite journal |last=Arnold |first=David |author-link=David Arnold (historian) |date=August 2020 |title=An Environmental History of India: From Earliest Times to the Twenty-First Century by Michael H. Fisher |journal=The English Historical Review |volume=135 |issue=575 |type=Review |pages=1083–1084 |doi=10.1093/ehr/ceaa180}}</ref>

==Published works==
* {{cite book |last1=Fisher |first1=Michael Herbert |year=1987 |title=A Clash of Cultures: Awadh, the British, and the Mughals |location=Riverdale, Maryland |publisher=The Riverdale Company |isbn=978-0-913215-27-2}}
* {{cite book |last1=Fisher |first1=Michael Herbert |author-mask=2 |year=1991 |title=Indirect Rule in India: Residents and the Residency System, 1764-1858 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-562676-6}}
* {{cite book |editor1-last=Fisher |editor1-first=Michael Herbert |editor1-mask=2 |year=1993 |title=The Politics of the British Annexation of India, 1757-1857 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-563920-9}}
* {{cite book |last1=Fisher |first1=Michael Herbert |author-mask=2 |year=1996 |title=The First Indian Author in English: Dean Mahomed (1759-1851) in India, Ireland, and England |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-565238-3}}
* {{cite book |last1=Mahomet |first1=Sake Deen |author-link=Dean Mahomed |editor1-last=Fisher |editor1-first=Michael Herbert |editor1-mask=2 |year=1997 |title=The Travels of Dean Mahomet: An Eighteenth Century Journey through India |publisher=University of California Press |location=Berkeley |isbn=978-0-520-20716-5}}
* {{cite book |last1=Fisher |first1=Michael Herbert |author-mask=2 |year=2004 |title=Counterflows to Colonialism: Indian Travellers and Settlers in Britain, 1600-1857 |publisher=Permanent Black |location=Delhi |isbn=978-81-7824-077-0}}
* {{cite book |last1=Fisher |first1=Michael Herbert |author-mask=2 |last2=Lahiri |first2=Shompa |last3=Thandi |first3=Shinder S. |year=2007 |title=A South Asian History of Britain: Four Centuries of Peoples from the Indian Subcontinent |location=Westport, Connecticut |publisher=Greenwood World Pub |isbn=978-1-84645-008-2}}
* {{cite book |editor1-last=Fisher |editor1-first=Michael Herbert |editor1-mask=2 |year=2007 |title=Visions of Mughal India: An Anthology of European Travel Writing |publisher=I.B. Tauris |isbn=978-1-84511-354-4}}
* {{cite book |last1=Fisher |first1=Michael Herbert |author-mask=2 |year=2010 |title=The Inordinately Strange Life of Dyce Sombre: Victorian Anglo Indian M.P. and Chancery 'Lunatic' |publisher=Columbia University Press |isbn=978-0-231-70108-2}}
* {{cite book |last1=Fisher |first1=Michael Herbert |author-mask=2 |year=2013 |title=Migration: A World History |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-935194-7}}
* {{cite book |last1=Fisher |first1=Michael Herbert |author-mask=2 |year=2016 |title=A Short History of the Mughal Empire |publisher=I.B.Tauris |isbn=978-1-84885-873-2}}
* {{cite book |last1=Fisher |first1=Michael Herbert |author-mask=2 |year=2018 |title=An Environmental History of India: From Earliest Times to the Twenty-First Century |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-1-107-11162-2}}

==References==
{{reflist}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Fisher, Michael H.}}

[[Category:1950 births]]

[[Category:Living people]]
[[Category:Trinity College (Connecticut) alumni]]
[[Category:University of Chicago alumni]]
[[Category:Western Washington University faculty]]
[[Category:Oberlin College faculty]]
[[Category:20th-century American historians]]
[[Category:21st-century American historians]]
[[Category:Historians of South Asia]]
[[Category:People from Wellfleet, Massachusetts]]

Michael H. Fisher - Revision history

Ajay Kumar: Created a new article