Patrick Karl O'Brien FRHistS FBA (born 12 August 1932) is a British historian who serves as professor emeritus of global economic history at the London School of Economics and Political Science.
[1][2] He received a DPhil from Nuffield College (University of Oxford) in 1960 for a thesis entitled Government Revenue, 1793–1815: A Study of Fiscal and Financial Policy in the Wars Against France (supervised by Sir John Habakkuk and Max Hartwell).
O'Brien began his career at the School of Oriental & African Studies (SOAS), where he worked as a research fellow from 1960 to 1963 and as a lecturer from 1963 to 1970.
In 1970, he joined the faculty of St Antony's College, Oxford, as university lecturer in economic history.
In 1990, he got appointed as director of the Institute of Historical Research and Professor of Economic History at the University of London.