Henry Arthur Kamen (born 4 October 1936 in Rangoon) is a British historian who has published extensively on Spain and the Spanish Empire.
[2] Kamen was educated at Chislehurst and Sidcup Grammar School, from where he won a Major Scholarship to study at the University of Oxford, earning his doctorate at St Antony's College.
[5]Strongly influenced by the research methods and social philosophy of the historians of the French Annales School, he has attempted to combine quantitative history with sociological analysis and accessible narrative.
In reaction against an earlier phase when he became immersed in statistical economic history, he has produced a number of biographies of the rulers of Spain, whom he considers unduly neglected.
That he has in many ways succeeded, thanks to decades of engaged scholarship, in fundamentally altering historians' understanding of 15th- and 16th-century Spain is testimony to the force of his arguments and the depth and quality of his rigorous, archive-based research.