-------- Original Message -------- Subject: Christopher Hill obit Date: Tue, 25 Feb 2003 22:08:07 -0500 From: Marvin Gandall <marvin.gandall at SYMPATICO.CA> Reply-To: Discussions on the Socialist Register and its articles<SOCIALIST-REGISTER at YorkU.CA> To: SOCIALIST-REGISTER at YORKU.CA
(From London Times -- Hill died Monday)
Christopher Hill Historian and Master of Balliol College whose influential writings on 17th-century change were imbued with his Marxist beliefs
A former communist who became Master of Balliol College, Oxford, Christopher Hill had an unparalleled command of the history of 17th-century England. His books on the period, such as Intellectual Origins of the English Revolution (1965) and The World Turned Upside Down (1972), broke new ground by placing ideological and radical causes above the high political questions and contingencies.
A pioneer of "history from below", Hill used his immense knowledge of writing, poetry, diaries and pamphlets to give a Marxist explanation for the events of the mid 17th century. He argued that the period saw a "revolution", which he compared to the events of 1789 and 1917.
Hill was a member of the Communist Party until 1957, and eight years after his resignation he became Master of Balliol, having been a Fellow there for more than 25 years. After he retired in 1978, he
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,60-591156,00.html