A permanent magnet electric generator (2) with directly controllable field excitation control comprises: a drive shaft (4); a permanent magnet rotor assembly (6) with multiple permanent magnets (8) arranged around an outer annular periphery of the rotor assembly; a stator assembly (12) comprising a ferromagnetic stator yoke (16), multiple ferromagnetic stator teeth (14) mounted to the stator yoke with distal ends proximate the outer annular periphery of the rotor assembly and separated therefrom by an air gap and multiple stator coils mounted between the stator teeth; multiple saturable ferromagnetic shunts (22), each shunt coupling adjacent distal ends of the stator teeth to shunt air gap magnetic flux generated by the permanent magnets across the air gap through the distal ends of the stator teeth; and multiple saturation control coils (24), each saturation control coil being wrapped about a saturable region of an associated one of the shunts; wherein application of a control current to the control coils at least partially magnetically saturates the shunts to reduce shunting of air gap magnetic flux, thereby increasing magnetic flux linkage between the permanent magnets and the stator coils and increasing generated electromagnetic force.