Hill, Christopher, 1912-2003.

 

Christopher Hill, 91, Dies; Marxist Historian of English Civil War
By PAUL LEWIS
New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/02/26/obituaries/27HILL.html
 

Christopher Hill, a leading Marxist historian of 17th-century England who helped illuminate the radical tradition of that revolutionary period, died on Monday. He was 91.

His death was announced by Oxford University, where he was master of Balliol College from 1965 to 1978.

Mr. Hill saw the civil war between King Charles I and Parliament as a class revolution ending feudalism and ushering in the capitalist age. A prodigious scholar and prolific writer, he published some 25 books and numerous essays exploring the upheavals in England of the 1640's and 1650's.

In that short, tumultuous period, civil war led to the execution of an anointed king; the abolition of monarchy, bishops and nobles; the creation of a republican Commonwealth, and finally the dictatorship of Oliver Cromwell's Protectorate, before a different form of royal rule was restored in 1660.

For Mr. Hill these events marked a revolutionary turning point in England's history as Puritanism — which he thought represented the nascent forces of capitalism — threw off the last vestiges of feudal rule and acquired the freedom it needed to create a new social and economic order. He called these developments "the English Revolution" in order to place it on a par with the other great revolutions of history, arguing that it laid the foundations for the country's extraordinary success over the next two centuries as initiator of the industrial revolution and founder of a mighty empire.

This view challenged an older, more orthodox view of English history that stressed continuity and sought to play down the significance of the events between 1640 and 1660 by calling them "the Puritan Revolution" or simply "the Interregnum."

"The English Revolution of 1640 to 1660 was a great social movement like the French Revolution of 1789," Mr. Hill wrote. "The state power protecting an old order that was essentially feudal was violently overthrown, power passed into the hands of a new class, and so the freer development of capitalism was made possible."

But the revolution that established the rights of property and gave political power to those with property was not really the revolution Mr. Hill wanted.

In what many consider his finest work, "The World Turned Upside Down" (Viking Press, 1972), Mr. Hill explored the extraordinary upsurge in radical political and religious thought that occurred during those revolutionary decades as groups called Levellers, True Levellers, Ranters, Fifth Monarchists, Muggletonians and other strange sects openly challenged all conventional beliefs.

Between them they questioned every tenet of the Christian faith, including heaven and hell and the existence of God. Some advocated free love. Many said true freedom was impossible until private property was abolished.

For an approving Mr. Hill, these years, when "ordinary people were freer from the authority of church and socially superior than they had ever been before," allowed a long-suppressed tradition of radical thought in England, dating back at least to the 15th century, to rise suddenly into public view.

The doctrines these sects preached disappeared again after 1660 with the restoration of Charles II. But Mr. Hill left no doubt where his sympathies lay, writing of "those marvelous decades when it seemed the whole world might be turned upside down."

Although Mr. Hill remained a lifelong radical and never repudiated Marxism, many scholars believe that his best work was done after he left the Communist Party in protest over the Soviet invasion of Hungary in 1956.

"He moved away from a rigid Marxist framework which sees economics and class struggle as driving history toward a more flexible approach that gave greater force to ideas," said David Underdown, an emeritus professor of history at Yale who studied with Mr. Hill.

In recent years Mr. Hill's approach to the 17th century has been criticized by some historians as overly schematic, while his Marxism has come to seem dated. "Intellectually faded" is how Sir Keith Thomas, another Oxford historian, described his work, adding, "there is a reaction against history that stresses long-term causes."

John Edward Christopher Hill was born Feb. 6, 1912, in York, northern England, the son of a successful lawyer. He was educated at St. Peter's School in York and was awarded a scholarship to Balliol, one of Oxford's most distinguished seats of learning. After graduation in 1934 he received Oxford's top intellectual honor, the All Souls Fellowship, awarded by a competitive examination.

Mr. Hill joined the Communist Party during his All Souls years and after the war helped found an organization known as the Historians Group of the Communist Party, which included such radical historians as Eric J. Hobsbawm, E. P. Thompson and Maurice Dobb. The group was highly influential in postwar Britain and some of its members became mentors of many young historians in the 1960's and 70's.

Mr. Hill's first marriage ended in divorce. His second wife, Bridget, died last year. He is survived by their son and daughter.
 
 
 

Historian Christopher Hill Dead at 91
By SUE LEEMAN
Associated Press Writer

LONDON (AP)--Historian Christopher Hill, a Marxist whose reinterpretation of the 17th century changed the way Britons regard the English revolution, has died at the age of 91, his former college said Wednesday.

Hill died Monday, said a spokesman for Oxford University's Balliol College, where Hill was master from 1965 to 1978. No place or cause of death was given.

``No historian of recent times was so synonymous with his period of study; he is the reason why most of us know anything about the 17th century at all,'' wrote The Guardian in an obituary published Wednesday.

In books such as ``The World Turned Upside Down'' (1972), Hill reclaimed a largely forgotten radical tradition, exploring the many groups--including Diggers, Ranters and Levelers--that challenged the monarchy in the 17th century.

Born in the northeastern English city of York, Hill attended the city's St. Peter's School before studying at Balliol College, the start of an academic association only ended 47 years later when he retired as master.

He read Marx while an undergraduate--the period of the Great Depression, the New Deal and the rise of Adolf Hitler--but remained vague about the timing of his conversion to Marxism.

But by the time he graduated he had joined the Communist Party and he spent 1935 in the Soviet Union, where he became enamored of Russian life, although not Soviet politics.

On his return, he worked for two years as an assistant lecturer at University College, Cardiff, before returning the Balliol as a fellow and tutor in modern history.

During World War II, Hill joined the army's intelligence corps and was seconded to the Foreign Office.

In 1940, he published his decisive essay, ``The English Revolution 1640,'' a hard-hitting look at revolutionary pressures in England after 1640 when parliamentary forces overthrew the monarchy. In it, he challenged the traditional view that these years were just an aberration in the stately progress of English history.

The discussions that followed led to the creation in 1946 of the Communist Party Historians Group, which included Eric Hobsbawn, James Jeffreys, Maurice Dobb and Edmund Dell.

The group helped to redefine the study of history in Britain and generated such pioneering documents as ``The Good Old Cause,'' which Hill edited with Dell in 1949.

After the Soviet invasion of Hungary in 1956, Hill became frustrated with the Communist Party's reluctance to criticize the Soviet Union and later broke with it.

During the war, he had married Inez Waugh; their daughter, Fanny, drowned off Spain in her 40s.

The marriage collapsed early and Hill married Bridget Sutton, then a history tutor with the Workers' Educational Association.

Under his mastership, Balliol was finally opened to female students and students gained representation on the college's governing body.

His second wife died in 2002 and he is survived by their son and a daughter; another daughter died in a car crash.
 

AP-NY-02-26-03 0912EST

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