Guy Vanthemsche (Ghent, 1958) was professor of Contemporary History at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel (Free University Brussels) from 1987 till his retirement in 2018. He was Secretary, and then co-Director of the Revue belge de Philologie et d'Histoire / Belgisch Tijdschrift voor Filologie en Geschiedenis from 1981 to 2018. He is a member of the Belgian Royal Historical Commission (Commission royale d'Histoire) since 1998 and is acting as its Secretary since 2009. He is also a member of several historical associations and institutions.
His scientific expertise is focused on contemporary economic, social and political history of 19th and 20th-century Belgium (a topic on which he wrote or edited 10 books and more than 100 articles) but also on colonial history, especially of the Belgian Congo.
Key publications
Vanthemsche, G. (1994). Genèse et portée du "Plan décennal" du Congo Belge (1949-1959). Brussel, Académie royale des Sciences d'Outre-Mer, Mémoires – Koninklijke Academie voor Overzeese Wetenschappen, 1994, 90 p. (Klasse voor Morele en Politieke Wetenschappen, Verhandelingen in-8°, Nieuwe Reeks, Boek 51, afl. 4).
Vanthemsche, G.( 2007). Congo. De impact van de kolonie op België. Tielt: Lannoo, 328 p. (French version: La Belgique et le Congo. L’impact de la colonie sur la métropole. Bruxelles: Le Cri Edition, 2010, 414 p.).
Vanthemsche, G. (2009). Le Congo belge pendant la Première Guerre mondiale. Les rapports du ministre des Colonies Jules Renkin au roi Albert 1er 1914-1918. (série in-8°, n° C16). Bruxelles, Commission royale d’Histoire, XXXII-240 p.
Vanthemsche, G. (2012). Belgium and the Congo, 1885–1980. Cambridge-New York: Cambrige University Press, 289 p. (second edition, paperback, 2017).
Vanthemsche, G., Goddeeris, I., & Lauro, A., (Eds.). (2020). Koloniaal Congo. Een geschiedenis in vragen. Kalmthout, Polis, 431 p. (French version: Le Congo colonial. Une histoire en questions. Bruxelles, La Renaissance du Livre, 2020, 463 p.).