Neil McKendrick is one of the best known historians in 18th century studies.  He graduated with a 'starred' First in History at Cambridge in 1956. He was elected into a Research Fellowship at Christ's College in March 1958 and elected as Fellow, College Lecturer and Director of Studies in History at Gonville & Caius College in October 1958. He was appointed Chairman of the History Faculty in 1985 and Master of Caius in 1996. His classic work (with John Brewer and J.H.Plumb) is The Birth of a Consumer Society: the Commercialization of Eighteenth-Century England, newly available from EER in a second expanded edition. His other publications include Historical Perspectives: Studies in English Thought and Society (1974), , The Birth of Foreign & Colonial: the World's First Investment Trust (1993), and F & C: a History of Foreign & Colonial Investment Trust (1999). He was general editor of the Europa Library of Business Biography and the Europa History of Human Experience. He is noted for his work on Josiah Wedgwood and the Industrial Revolution. He is currently a Life Fellow and former Master of Caius College and an Honorary Fellow of Christ's College.