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Christopher John Hesketh Duggan (4 November 1957 – 2 November 2015) was a British
historian A historian is a person who studies and writes about the past and is regarded as an authority on it. Historians are concerned with the continuous, methodical narrative and research of past events as relating to the human race; as well as the st ...
and academic. He specialised in the political, social and cultural history of modern Italy. He began his career as a
research fellow A research fellow is an academic research position at a university or a similar research institution, usually for academic staff or faculty members. A research fellow may act either as an independent investigator or under the supervision of a pr ...
at
Wolfson College, Oxford Wolfson College () is a constituent college of the University of Oxford in England. Located in north Oxford along the River Cherwell, Wolfson is an all-graduate college with around sixty governing body fellows, in addition to both research a ...
and then at All Souls College, Oxford. In 1987, he moved to the
University of Reading The University of Reading is a public university in Reading, Berkshire, England. It was founded in 1892 as University College, Reading, a University of Oxford extension college. The institution received the power to grant its own degrees in 192 ...
where he remained until his death. He was
Professor Professor (commonly abbreviated as Prof.) is an academic rank at universities and other post-secondary education and research institutions in most countries. Literally, ''professor'' derives from Latin as a "person who professes". Professors ...
of Modern Italian History from 2002.


Early life and education

On 4 November 1957, Duggan was born to Margaret (née Hesketh) and John Duggan in
Petts Wood Petts Wood is a town in south-east London, England, previously located in the historic county of Kent. It lies south of Chislehurst, west of St Paul's Cray and Poverest, north of Orpington and Crofton, and east of Southborough and Bromley ...
,
Kent Kent is a county in South East England and one of the home counties. It borders Greater London to the north-west, Surrey to the west and East Sussex to the south-west, and Essex to the north across the estuary of the River Thames; it faces ...
, England. His mother was a nurse and social worker, and his father worked as a
shipbroker Shipbroking is a financial service, which forms part of the global shipping industry. Shipbrokers are specialist intermediaries/negotiators (i.e. brokers) between shipowners and charterers who use ships to transport cargo, or between buyers an ...
. He was educated at
Dulwich College Dulwich College is a 2–19 Independent school (United Kingdom), independent, Day school, day and boarding school for Single-sex education, boys in Dulwich, London, England. As a Public school (United Kingdom), public school, it began as the Col ...
, an all-boys public school in London, and at
Westminster School (God Gives the Increase) , established = Earliest records date from the 14th century, refounded in 1560 , type = Public school Independent day and boarding school , religion = Church of England , head_label = Hea ...
, an all-boys public school in the grounds of
Westminster Abbey Westminster Abbey, formally titled the Collegiate Church of Saint Peter at Westminster, is an historic, mainly Gothic church in the City of Westminster, London, England, just to the west of the Palace of Westminster. It is one of the Unite ...
. At the age of 11, he won an essay competition and was awarded a
Mediterranean The Mediterranean Sea is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean Basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the north by Western Europe, Western and Southern Europe and Anatolia, on the south by North Africa ...
cruise as the prize. Between school and university, Duggan went on holiday to Italy and explored the country on a Honda CB175 motorbike. He then studied
history History (derived ) is the systematic study and the documentation of the human activity. The time period of event before the invention of writing systems is considered prehistory. "History" is an umbrella term comprising past events as well ...
at Merton College, Oxford. He was mostly interested in
medieval history In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the Post-classical, post-classical period of World history (field), global history. It began with t ...
at the beginning of his studies, but became interested in the history of modern Italy after being taught by
Denis Mack Smith Denis Mack Smith CBE FBA FRSL (3 March 1920 – 11 July 2017) was an English historian who specialized in the history of Italy from the Risorgimento onwards. He is best known for his biographies of Garibaldi, Cavour and Mussolini, and for hi ...
. He graduated with a first class
Bachelor of Arts Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four year ...
(BA) degree in 1979 with one of the top firsts of his year. Having completed his bachelor's degree, Duggan spent a year living in Italy. He once had his flat raided by the
DIGOS Digos, officially the City of Digos ( ceb, Dakbayan sa Digos; fil, Lungsod ng Digos), is a 2nd class component city and capital of the province of Davao del Sur, Philippines. According to the 2020 census, it has a population of 188,376 people. ...
, the Italian anti-terrorist and organised crime unit, because they suspected him of being a foreign subversive; however, he was not arrested or charged. He returned to the
University of Oxford , mottoeng = The Lord is my light , established = , endowment = £6.1 billion (including colleges) (2019) , budget = £2.145 billion (2019–20) , chancellor ...
to complete a
Doctor of Philosophy A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, Ph.D., or DPhil; Latin: or ') is the most common degree at the highest academic level awarded following a course of study. PhDs are awarded for programs across the whole breadth of academic fields. Because it is ...
(DPhil) degree under the supervision of Mack Smith. His thesis was completed in 1985 and was titled "''Fascism's campaign against the mafia''".


Academic career

Duggan began his academic career as a
junior research fellow A research fellow is an academic research position at a university or a similar research institution, usually for academic staff or faculty members. A research fellow may act either as an independent investigator or under the supervision of a ...
at
Wolfson College, Oxford Wolfson College () is a constituent college of the University of Oxford in England. Located in north Oxford along the River Cherwell, Wolfson is an all-graduate college with around sixty governing body fellows, in addition to both research a ...
between 1983 and 1985. From 1985 to 1990, he was a
post-doctoral A postdoctoral fellow, postdoctoral researcher, or simply postdoc, is a person professionally conducting research after the completion of their doctoral studies (typically a PhD). The ultimate goal of a postdoctoral research position is to pu ...
research fellow A research fellow is an academic research position at a university or a similar research institution, usually for academic staff or faculty members. A research fellow may act either as an independent investigator or under the supervision of a pr ...
at All Souls College, Oxford. During this period, he assisted Mack Smith and
Moses Finley Sir Moses Israel Finley, FBA (born Finkelstein; 20 May 1912 – 23 June 1986) was an American-born British academic and classical scholar. His prosecution by the United States Senate Subcommittee on Internal Security during the 1950s, resulted ...
with updating their ''A History of Sicily'' book; this revised version was published in 1986. His first major work, ''Fascism and the Mafia'', grew out of his DPhil, and was published in Italian in 1986 and in English in 1989. From 1990 to 1997, he retained a link with All Souls College, having been elected a Fifty-Pound Fellow. In 1987, Duggan joined the
University of Reading The University of Reading is a public university in Reading, Berkshire, England. It was founded in 1892 as University College, Reading, a University of Oxford extension college. The institution received the power to grant its own degrees in 192 ...
as a lecturer in history. Unusually for a historian, he was not based in the Department of History but in the Department of
European Studies European studies is a field of study offered by many academic colleges and universities that focuses on current developments in European integration. Some programmes offer a social science or public administration curriculum focusing on develop ...
. He taught
Italian Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries ** Italians, an ethnic group or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language, a Romance language *** Regional Ita ...
history History (derived ) is the systematic study and the documentation of the human activity. The time period of event before the invention of writing systems is considered prehistory. "History" is an umbrella term comprising past events as well ...
,
politics Politics (from , ) is the set of activities that are associated with making decisions in groups, or other forms of power relations among individuals, such as the distribution of resources or status. The branch of social science that stud ...
,
culture Culture () is an umbrella term which encompasses the social behavior, institutions, and norms found in human societies, as well as the knowledge, beliefs, arts, laws, customs, capabilities, and habits of the individuals in these groups ...
and
language Language is a structured system of communication. The structure of a language is its grammar and the free components are its vocabulary. Languages are the primary means by which humans communicate, and may be conveyed through a variety of ...
. In 1994, he was promoted to
Reader A reader is a person who reads. It may also refer to: Computing and technology * Adobe Reader (now Adobe Acrobat), a PDF reader * Bible Reader for Palm, a discontinued PDA application * A card reader, for extracting data from various forms of ...
. In 2002, he was appointed
Professor Professor (commonly abbreviated as Prof.) is an academic rank at universities and other post-secondary education and research institutions in most countries. Literally, ''professor'' derives from Latin as a "person who professes". Professors ...
of Modern Italian History. From 2008 to 2013, he was Head of the School of Languages and European Studies (later renamed the School of Literature and Languages). Shortly before his death, Duggan had been appointed to a research professorship in the Department of History, Reading, and had been elected as a Two Year Fellow at All Souls College, Oxford. Duggan wrote books about Italian history. ''A Concise History of Italy'' (1994) allowed him to return to his original interest in medieval history. First published in Italian in 2000, ''Francesco Crispi 1818–1901'' (2002), the first biography in English on Prime Minister Francesco Crispi, explores Crispi's evolution from a revolutionary
democrat Democrat, Democrats, or Democratic may refer to: Politics *A proponent of democracy, or democratic government; a form of government involving rule by the people. *A member of a Democratic Party: **Democratic Party (United States) (D) **Democratic ...
to a bellicose authoritarian and his role in the
unification of Italy The unification of Italy ( it, Unità d'Italia ), also known as the ''Risorgimento'' (, ; ), was the 19th-century political and social movement that resulted in the consolidation of different states of the Italian Peninsula into a single ...
. ''The Force of Destiny: A History of Italy since 1796'' (2007) focuses on Italy in the 19th and 20th centuries. In his prize-winning book ''Fascist Voices'' (2012), he used the diaries, memoirs and letters of thousands of ordinary Italian citizens to investigate why so many had closely identified with the early 20th-century fascist regime of Benito Mussolini.


Death

Duggan was found dead on 2 November 2015 at his home in
Twickenham Twickenham is a suburban district in London, England. It is situated on the River Thames southwest of Charing Cross. Historically part of Middlesex, it has formed part of the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames since 1965, and the boroug ...
,
London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...
. He was 57 years of age. A
memorial service A funeral is a ceremony connected with the final disposition of a corpse, such as a burial or cremation, with the attendant observances. Funerary customs comprise the complex of beliefs and practices used by a culture to remember and respect th ...
was held in the chapel of All Souls College, Oxford on 12 December. A full inquest into his death recorded a verdict of suicide.


Personal life

Duggan met his wife Jennifer Mundy at the
University of Oxford , mottoeng = The Lord is my light , established = , endowment = £6.1 billion (including colleges) (2019) , budget = £2.145 billion (2019–20) , chancellor ...
, and they married in 1987. She is an art historian and was the Head of Art Historical Research at the
Tate Gallery Tate is an institution that houses, in a network of four art galleries, the United Kingdom's national collection of British art, and international modern and contemporary art. It is not a government institution, but its main sponsor is the U ...
. They had two children: Amelia and Thomas.


Honours

In 2013 Duggan's book ''Fascist Voices'' (2012) was awarded the prestigious
Wolfson History Prize The Wolfson History Prizes are literary awards given annually in the United Kingdom to promote and encourage standards of excellence in the writing of history for the general public. Prizes are given annually for two or three exceptional works ...
. He received £25,000 in prize money. His doctoral supervisor and mentor,
Denis Mack Smith Denis Mack Smith CBE FBA FRSL (3 March 1920 – 11 July 2017) was an English historian who specialized in the history of Italy from the Risorgimento onwards. He is best known for his biographies of Garibaldi, Cavour and Mussolini, and for hi ...
, had been awarded the same prize 36 years earlier. ''Fascist Voices'' was also named "Political History Book of the Year" in the Political Book Awards of 2013. In 2008 Duggan was appointed a ''Commendatore dell'Ordine della Stella della Solidarietà Italiana'' (Commander of the
Order of the Star of Italian Solidarity The Order of the Star of Italian Solidarity ( it, Stella della solidarietà italiana ) was founded as a national order by the first President of the Italian Republic, Enrico De Nicola, in 1947, to recognise civilian and military expatriates or ...
) by the Italian president. This is one of the highest honours Italy can give to a foreign citizen.


Selected works

* * * * * * * * *


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Duggan, Christopher 1957 births 2015 deaths People from Petts Wood People educated at Dulwich College People educated at Westminster School, London Alumni of Merton College, Oxford British historians Historians of Italy Historians of Sicily Fellows of All Souls College, Oxford Academics of the University of Reading Suicides by hanging in England 2015 suicides