EMH EarlyModernHistory

  Remembering Christopher Hill I first came across Christopher Hill in the Hilary Term (January to March) of 1963 when I attended lectures he gave in the dining hall of Balliol College, Oxford. These were based on the material he later published in 1964 in his book, Society and Puritanism in Pre-Revolutionary England . I was very surprised by his delivery of these lectures given in a rather flat, even-paced voice punctuated by copious quotations from printed sources and accompanied by an interpretation of this period in a form of soft determinism. Rather disconcertingly, every two or three sentences he would sniff as if to punctuate his remarks. It was more of a surprise to me in October, 1965 when he was assigned as my supervisor by the History Faculty Board for my prospective work on the 2nd Earl of Warwick. At our first meeting, he enquired after my social background and about my watch, which was one of the very first to provide the date as well as the time, and what it had cost. I

 

I understand today from Glenn Burgess (University of Hull) that Michael Braddick (University of Sheffield) is writing a biography of Christopher Hill.

 Memorializing Christopher Hill I have been wondering for several years about the renewed interest in the influence and writings of Christopher Hill, the Marxist historian of the seventeenth-century England – particularly of the events of the 1640s and 1650s – and the former Master of Balliol College, Oxford. An annual lecture in his memory has been established and there is planned to be a conference on his book, The World Turned Upside Down, published just over fifty years ago at the Institute of Historical Research in London on 4th February. I have heard that some of his correspondence held in Balliol’s College’s Library may be published but how reliable this report is cannot be verified. Is this interest in Hill accidental or is there a network of scholars engaged in promoting this interest in Hill’s oeuvre?  Posted on the academia.edu site as a comment yesterday.