Peter Watson is an intellectual historian and former journalist, now perhaps best known for his work in the history of ideas.
He was educated at the universities of Durham, London, and Rome. Watson was deputy editor of New Society, and was for four years a member of the Insight team at The Sunday Times. He was New York correspondent of The Times and has written for The Observer, Punch, The Spectator and The New York Times. His journalistic work has included detailed investigation of auction houses and the international market in stolen antiquities, which has resulted in books and TV documentaries.
In June 1997 Watson became a research associate at the McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research at Cambridge. He has published thirteen books, including The German Genius, published by Simon & Schuster in 2010.