Robin Blackburn (born 1940) is a British historian, a former editor of New Left Review (1981–1999), and emeritus professor in the department of sociology at Essex University.
Blackburn was educated at Hurstpierpoint College, Oxford University and the London School of Economics. Between 2001 and 2010 he was distinguished visiting professor of historical studies at The New School in New York City. He is an emeritus professor in the department of sociology at Essex University. He has been a regular contributor to New Left Review since 1962.
Blackburn is an author of essays on the collapse of Soviet Communism, on the "credit crunch" of 2008, and of books on the history of slavery and on social policy. His other works, American Crucible: Slavery, Emancipation and Human Rights (2011), The Making of New World Slavery: from the Baroque to the Modern, 1492-1800 (1997) and The Overthrow of Colonial Slavery, 1776-1848 (1988), offer an account of the rise and fall of colonial slavery in the Americas, contributing to the emerging field of "Atlantic history". He has also published histories of Social Security, and critiques of the "financialisation of everyday life" and of the privatisation of pension provision.
