Christopher Dawson: A Cultural Mind in the Age of the Great War - Paperbackby Joseph T. Stuart (Author) The English historian Christopher Dawson (1889 1970) was the first Catholic Studies professor at Harvard University and has been described as one of the foremost Catholic thinkers of modern times. His focus on culture prefigured its importance in Catholicism since Vatican Council II and in the rise of mainstream cultural history in the late twentieth century. How did Dawson think about culture and why does it matter?