Lawrence Davidson


Lawrence Davidson is a retired professor of history from West Chester University in West Chester, Pennsylvania. He is the author of Islamic Fundamentalism, Cultural Genocide and has focused his academic research on American foreign relations with the Middle East.

Early life and education

Davidson was born to a secular Jewish household in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in 1945. He attended Rutgers University from 1963–1967, where he earned a bachelor's degree in history. While attending Rutgers, Davidson developed a leftist perspective regarding the problems facing the US in the 1960s.
In 1967, Davidson was accepted into Georgetown University Master's program where he studied modern European intellectual history under Palestinian expatriate professor Hisham Sharabi. During his time at Georgetown, Davidson became one of the founding members of the Students for a Democratic Society at Georgetown at the height of the Vietnam War.
In 1970, with the breakup of the SDS, Davidson left the United States for Canada. He spent the next six years at the University of Alberta in Edmonton where he earned a PhD in modern European Intellectual history.
After returning to the United States in the mid 1970s, Davidson spent several years as an adjunct instructor at various colleges and universities, as well as working for a time as a middle manager at Alexian Brothers Health Systems Catholic hospital in St. Louis. Subsequently, he was contracted to write the history of Alexian Brothers’ oldest hospital. This led to his first book, The Alexian Brothers of Chicago.
In 1989, Davidson joined the faculty of history at West Chester University as a tenure track professor where he taught Middle East history, the history of science, and modern European intellectual history. He retired from WCU in May 2013.
Currently, Davidson writes for his Blog " To The Point Analyses" and is a contributing editor for. Davidson is a board member of the U.S. Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel, alongside Hamid Dabashi, Ilan Pappé, Michel Shehadeh, and honorary advisory board member Desmond Tutu.

''Cultural Genocide'' (2012)

In 2012, Rutgers University Press published Davidson's book Cultural Genocide. Davidson defines cultural genocide as the "purposeful destructive targeting of out-group cultures so as to destroy or weaken them in the process of conquest or domination".

Books