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Claudio Véliz is an economic historian, sociologist and author from Chile, who has held numerous academic posts in various institutions of higher learning including La Trobe University, Harvard and Boston University.
Educated at the Mackay School and the Grange School, he completed a Bachelor of Science degree in the University of Florida and subsequently completed a PhD in Economic History at the London School of Economics with a dissertation on "Arthur Young and the English Landed Interest".
He has written extensively on the achievements of countries that started out as colonies of the British Empire. His book The New World of the Gothic Fox points to factors such as the Spanish counter-reformation traditions and culture as an inhibitor of social innovation and economic development in Latin America in contrast to the successful development of British North America.
Professor Véliz has also been a major critic of anti-colonialist historians such Manning Clark - a principal Australian historian. He considers Clark’s historical analysis as politically motivated and lacking an objective appreciation of the extension of Great Britain’s civilization into Australia.
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