Introduction
Leften Stavros Stavrianos (1913 – March 23, 2004) was a Greek-Canadian historian. His most influential books are considered to be A Global History: From Prehistory to the 21st Century and The Balkans since 1453. He was one of the very first historians to challenge Orientalist views of the Ottoman Empire.
Biography
Stavrianos was born in Vancouver, Canada in 1913. He received a B.A. in history from the University of British Columbia, and a M.A. and Ph.D. from Clark University in Worcester, Massachusetts.
Stavrianos joined the faculty of Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario and Smith College in Northampton, Massachusetts. He then became a professor at Northwestern University in 1946. After retiring from Northwestern in 1973, Stavrianos joined the University of California, San Diego Department of History until 1992.