Harvie grew up in the
Borders village of
St Boswells and was educated in
Kelso at
Kelso High School and in
Edinburgh at
Royal High School. He studied at the
University of Edinburgh, where he graduated in 1966 with a
First Class Honours M.A. in History. He received his
PhD from Edinburgh in 1972 for a thesis on university liberalism and democracy, 1860–1886. As a historian, Harvie was the Shaw-Macfie Lang Fellow and a tutor at Edinburgh University 1966–1969. He joined the
Open University in 1969 as a history lecturer, and from 1978 he was a senior lecturer in history. In 1980, Harvie was appointed Professor of British and Irish Studies at the
University of Tübingen. He is the author of several books on topics including
Scottish history,
nationalism,
North Sea oil, the British
political novel and
European regionalisation. Harvie was formerly a member of the
Labour Party. He co-wrote a pamphlet in favour of the
Scottish Assembly along with
Gordon Brown in 1979, and co-edited a history of Labour politics in Scotland. In 1988 he left the Labour Party for the SNP. He is Honorary President of the Scottish Association for Public Transport and holds honorary chairs at the
University of Wales, Aberystwyth and the
University of Strathclyde. He also writes for
Guardian Unlimited's online '
comment is free' site, and he is a contributor to the
Scottish Review of Books. He was elected during the
2007 election for the Mid Scotland and Fife region. He served on the Economy, Energy and Tourism Committee. Harvie won the Free Spirit of the Year award at
The Herald newspaper's 2008
Scottish Politician of the Year awards. He retired as an MSP at the 2011 election. ==See also==