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David Rock (historian)

British historian

Correspondence, annotated notebooks and portrait silhouettes prepared for research
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Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionSep 23, 2026
Entity authorityQ5239153 ↗
Source-derived summary

David Peter Rock (born 8 April 1945) is an English academic who specializes in the history of Argentina. He is a retired professor at the Department of History at the University of California, Santa Barbara, who now lives in England.

He was born in Great Harwood, Blackburn, Lancashire, England and attended Clitheroe Royal Grammar School (1956-1963). He matriculated at St John's College, Cambridge in 1964, where he graduated in 1967. He was awarded an M.A. in 1970 and a Ph.D. in 1971, both at Cambridge University. He worked as a Research Officer at the Centre of Latin American Studies, University of Cambridge in 1970-1974 and as Assistant Secretary at the Institute of Latin American Studies, University of London in London from 1974 to 1977. He moved to the U.S. to teach at the University of California, Santa Barbara, where he was promoted to Professor in 1980. He retired from university teaching 2014. He married Rosalind Farrar in 1968, with whom he had two sons.

He has been described as a "leading scholar in the field" of 19th and 20-century Argentine history.

Editorial summary

Begin with the source’s own compact description: “David Rock (historian)” is british historian. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through David, Rock and historian, not as a finished interpretation.

Editorial reviewA useful biographical orientation record, particularly for establishing names, roles and a first chronology. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1945, 1956, 1963, 1964—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1945-04-08. For this dossier, David, Rock and historian is the immediate research focus.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The phrase “british historian” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.

Evidence profile

Biographical claims are most persuasive when dates, appointments and relationships can be traced to records created close to the events described. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 23, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q5239153. VIAF identifies the subject as 88085120. The Library of Congress control number is n83194224. 3 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1945, 1956, 1963 and 1964.

Critical limits

Later biographies can compress uncertainty and repeat inherited reputations, so apparently settled claims may still require comparison. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Read biographical claims against dates, named institutions and the cited references. Distinguish a subject’s later reputation from evidence produced during their lifetime.

Best used for
  • Establishing names and roles
  • Building a first chronology
  • Locating cited institutions
Verify next

Personal papers, civil or court records, institutional files and the scholarship cited by the source.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “David Rock (historian)”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow David Rock (historian) primary sources, David Rock (historian) archive and David research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “David Rock (historian)”?
  2. Which primary records establish identity, chronology and institutional ties?
  3. How has the subject’s reputation changed across later accounts?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “David Rock (historian)” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.