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Daniel Snowman (born 4 November 1938, aged 84) is a British writer,
, while his books include ''Kissing Cousins'' (a comparative study of British and American social attitudes); critical portraits of the Amadeus Quartet and of
Asa Briggs, ''The history of broadcasting in the United Kingdom'', Oxford University Press 1995, Volume 5 – pp. 941–2; David Hendy, ''Life on Air: A History of Radio Four'' (Oxford University Press, 2007), p. 64;
Asa Briggs: "The March of Time" (''History Today'', Volume 46, issue 11, November 1996); Asa Briggs: Loose Ends and Extras (Frontline Books, 2014), p. 44.
''Whatever Happened to Equality?'' (John Vaizey ed, BBC 1975). ''The Long March of Everyman, 1750–1960'' (T. C. Barker, ed, Deutsch, 1975). ''World Powers in the Twentieth Century'' (Harriet Ward, BBC and Heinemann Educational Books, 1978). ''Pole Positions: The Polar Regions and the Future of the Planet'' (Hodder & Stoughton, 1993). ''Fins de Siècle'', (with Asa Briggs; Yale University Press, 1996).
''The Spectator'' 27 April 2002; ''The Guardian'' 11 May 2002; ''The Daily Telegraph'', 28 April 2002; ''The Catholic Herald'', 1 November 2002;
''Contemporary Review'', August 2003.
''Literary Review'', November 2009. For further reviews of The Gilded Stage, see e.g.: ''The Scotsman'', 20 November 2009; ''The Independent'', 18 December 2009; ''The Gramophone'', February 2010; ''The Telegraph'' (Calcutta), 20 August 2010; ''Metro'', 16 November 2010; ''The Guardian'', 27 November 2010; ''Opera News'' (New York), February 2011 etc.
Daniel Snowman (born 4 November 1938, aged 84) is a British writer, 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 ...
, lecturer and broadcaster on social
Social organisms, including human(s), live collectively in interacting populations. This interaction is considered social whether they are aware of it or not, and whether the exchange is voluntary or not.
Etymology
The word "social" derives from ...
and cultural history
Cultural history combines the approaches of anthropology and history to examine popular cultural traditions and cultural interpretations of historical experience. It examines the records and narrative descriptions of past matter, encompassing the ...
. His career has spanned the academic world and the BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC
Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...
...Plácido Domingo
José Plácido Domingo Embil (born 21 January 1941) is a Spanish opera singer, conductor, and arts administrator. He has recorded over a hundred complete operas and is well known for his versatility, regularly performing in Italian, French ...
; a study of the cultural impact of ''The Hitler Émigrés''; an anthology of essays about today's leading historians; ''The Gilded Stage: A Social History of Opera'' and ''Just Passing Through - Interactions with the World 1938 - 2021''.
Life and career
Snowman was born and raised inLondon
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 ...
, his parents coming from Anglo-Jewish
British Jews (often referred to collectively as British Jewry or Anglo-Jewry) are British citizens who identify as Jewish. The number of people who identified as Jews in the United Kingdom rose by just under 4% between 2001 and 2021.
History
...
families with roots in 19th-century Eastern Europe. He was educated at Cambridge
Cambridge ( ) is a College town, university city and the county town in Cambridgeshire, England. It is located on the River Cam approximately north of London. As of the 2021 United Kingdom census, the population of Cambridge was 145,700. Cam ...
(Double First-class degree in History) and Cornell
Cornell University is a private statutory land-grant research university based in Ithaca, New York. It is a member of the Ivy League. Founded in 1865 by Ezra Cornell and Andrew Dickson White, Cornell was founded with the intention to teach a ...
(MA in Government) and from 1963–7 was a lecturer in Politics and American Studies at the University of Sussex
, mottoeng = Be Still and Know
, established =
, type = Public research university
, endowment = £14.4 million (2020)
, budget = £319.6 million (2019–20)
, chancellor = Sanjeev Bhaskar
, vice_chancellor = Sasha Roseneil
, ...
. In 1967, he went to the BBC for a 6-month stint as a radio producer, rejoining as a full-time staff member in 1970. In 1967, too, Snowman joined the London Philharmonic Choir
The London Philharmonic Choir (LPC) is one of the leading independent British choirs in the United Kingdom based in London. The patron is Princess Alexandra, The Hon Lady Ogilvy and Sir Mark Elder is president. The choir, comprising more than ...
, an ensemble with whom he sang for 48 years, and whose history he has written.
At the BBC, Snowman was responsible for a wide variety of radio programmes on cultural and historical subjects, working with such established broadcasters as Bernard Crick
Sir Bernard Rowland Crick (16 December 1929 – 19 December 2008) was a British political theorist and democratic socialist whose views can be summarised as "politics is ethics done in public". He sought to arrive at a "politics of action", as ...
, Robin Day
Sir Robin Day (24 October 1923 – 6 August 2000) was an English political journalist and television and radio broadcaster.
Day's obituary in ''The Guardian'' by Dick Taverne stated that he was "the most outstanding television journalist of ...
, Bill Grundy, Lord Hailsham
Viscount Hailsham, of Hailsham in the County of Sussex, is a title in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. It was created in 1929 for the lawyer and Conservative politician Douglas Hogg, 1st Baron Hailsham, who twice served as Lord High Chancello ...
, William Hardcastle and John Vaizey
John Ernest Vaizey, Baron Vaizey (1 October 1929 – 19 July 1984) was a British author and economist, who specialised in education.
Background and education
Vaizey was the son of Ernest Vernon Vaizey and his wife Lucy Butler Hart. He was educ ...
while also helping develop the broadcasting careers of such younger figures as Susan Hill
Dame Susan Hill, Lady Wells, (born 5 February 1942) is an English author of fiction and non-fiction works. Her novels include ''The Woman in Black'', '' The Mist in the Mirror'', and '' I'm the King of the Castle'', for which she received t ...
, Aled Jones
Aled Jones, (born 29 December 1970) is a Welsh singer and radio and television presenter. As a teenage chorister, he reached widespread fame during the mid-1980s. Since then he has worked in television with the BBC and ITV, and radio (for ...
, Norman Lebrecht
Norman Lebrecht (born 11 July 1948) is a British music journalist and author who specializes in classical music. He is best known as the owner of the classical music blog, ''Slipped Disc'', where he frequently publishes articles. Unlike other ...
, Roy Porter, Edward Seckerson and Lucie Skeaping
Lucie Skeaping (née Finch) is a British singer, instrumentalist, broadcaster and writer. She was a founder of the early music group the City Waites and the pioneering klezmer band the Burning Bush. She presents BBC Radio 3's '' Early Music ...
. Snowman tended to specialize in ambitious series such as ''The Long March of Everyman'', ''Whatever Happened to Equality?'', ''A World In Common'' (world development issues), ''World Powers in the Twentieth Century'', ''Northern Lights'' (a Radio 4 festival about the Arctic) and ''Fins de Siècle'', an attempt to enter and recreate the sound world of the final years of each of the past six centuries. Many of these later appeared as books which Snowman helped edit. After leaving the BBC at the end of 1995, Snowman turned increasingly to writing and lecturing. From 2004 he has held a Senior Research Fellowship at London University
The University of London (UoL; abbreviated as Lond or more rarely Londin in post-nominals) is a federal public research university located in London, England, United Kingdom. The university was established by royal charter in 1836 as a degree- ...
's Institute of Historical Research
The Institute of Historical Research (IHR) is a British educational organisation providing resources and training for historical researchers. It is part of the School of Advanced Study in the University of London and is located at Senate Hou ...
; in 2010 he delivered the IHR Annual Fellows’ Lecture.
Personal life
Snowman was briefly married to Alice Harris (1964–66). In 1975, he married Janet Levison and they have two children, Ben and Anna. The marriage ended in divorce in 2014.Publications
''The Hitler Émigrés: The Cultural Impact on Britain of Refugees from Nazism'' concerned those who, having escaped the shadow of Nazism, found refuge in Britain and made a lasting mark on the nation's intellectual and cultural life, among them some of Britain's most celebrated artists, architects, musicians, choreographers, film makers, historians, philosophers, scientists, writers, broadcasters and publishers. ''Historians'', based on a long-running series of quarterly essays in the magazine History Today. Snowman examined the so-called ‘History Wave’, proposed some reasons for this, and suggested that, as people sought a usable ‘Heritage’ from the past as an aid to their own self-definition, the historian – who mediates between past and present – took on something of the function of the priest of earlier times. In ''Historians'', he wrote about the life and work of some thirty of the most influential, including Asa Briggs, Peter Burke, David Cannadine, Natalie Zemon Davis, Richard J. Evans, Niall Ferguson, Roy Foster, Antonia Fraser, Eric Hobsbawm, Lisa Jardine, Ian Kershaw, Simon Schama and David Starkey. ''The Gilded Stage: A Social History of Opera'' was a pioneering attempt to place the history of opera in its widest historical perspective. Thus, Snowman explored not only the traditional trio of composers, works and artists but also the financing and patronage of opera over the centuries, the changing nature of those in the operatic professions and their audiences, the history of theatrical architecture and of stage design, the impact of new technologies (gas, electric lighting, recording, photography, film etc.), and the globalization of opera in the 20th century. ''Just Passing Through: Interactions with the World 1938 - 2021'', a Memoir in which Snowman writes of a Jewish child's memories of the War, gives colourful inside accounts of life in Cambridge, JFK's America (including Civil Rights) and the new University of Sussex, of the BBC in its heyday, choral concerts under the world's top conductors and extended visits to the Arctic and Antarctic. He watches Churchill making one of his final speeches, interviews Harry Truman about Hiroshima, spends a week in Bayreuth with Wagner's daughter-in-law, meets Pope John-Paul II, Isaiah Berlin and Lord Snowdon, while getting to know Plácido Domingo and the most famous among the ‘Hitler Emigrés’.Articles and reviews
Articles and reviews by Daniel Snowman have appeared in: ''BBC History Magazine'', ''BBC Music Magazine'', ''Daily/Sunday Telegraph'', ''Economist'', ''English Historical Review'', ''Gramophone'', ''Guardian'', ''Historical Research'', ''Historically Speaking'', ''History Today'', ''Homes & Gardens'', ''Independent'', ''Jewish Chronicle'', ''Jewish Renaissance'', ''Journal of American Studies'', ''Listener'', ''Literary Review'', ''Living History'', ''Music and Musicians'', ''Musical Times'', ''New Society'', ''New Statesman'', ''Opera'', ''Opera Now'', ''Political Studies'', ''Radio Times'', ''Standard'', ''Sunday Times'', ''Times'', ''Times Literary & Higher Education Supplements'', ''Tribune''. His 'Short History of Opera' (and pages about voice types, etc.) was used on the official website of the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, and in spring 2011 he was commissioned by the ROH to undertake an academic assessment of their Archives and historical Collections.Lectures and public events
Snowman is a Frequent Lecturer at British arts festivals, academic and cultural institutions, luncheon clubs etc, and in a typical year delivers over 50 illustrated talks and lectures across the UK and abroad. Since 1999 he has delivered over 650 illustrated lectures to members of The Arts Society (formerly NADFAS). In 2002 and again in 2006 he undertook a two-month, round-the-world lecture-and-research tour, including visits to various parts of Australia, New Zealand and North America. Daniel has also lectured for the Royal Opera (Covent Garden), Glyndebourne, English National Opera, the New York Metropolitan Opera Guild and Los Angeles Opera. In winter 2010/11, he delivered a six-part series of public lectures at the Royal Academy of Music on the Social History of Opera, and in 2017 presented a 12-week (36-session) course at the Victoria and Albert Museum to accompany their major exhibition on the subject – a lecture series he repeated at the V&A in 2018.Tours
He has also lectured on cruise liners, and between 2001-2014 he led over fifty music and opera tours for ACE, Cox & Kings, Martin Randall and other travel companies to many of the world's great cultural capitals, among them: Aix-en-Provence, Barcelona, Berlin, Bregenz, Budapest, Cracow, Dresden, Halle, Leipzig, Madrid, Milan, Munich, Naples, New York, Paris, Prague, Riga, Rome, Salzburg, Savonlinna, Seville/Andalucia, Stockholm, Torre del Lago, Turin, Valencia, Venice, Vienna and Warsaw.Books
''Just Passing Through: Interactions with the World 1938 - 2021''
(Brown Dog Books (16 Sept. 2021))''Verdi''
(The History Press ocket Giants series 2014)''The Gilded Stage: A Social History of Opera''
(Atlantic Books, 2009; paperback edition, 2010; Italian edition (''Il Palco d'oro'') Elliot Edizioni, 2010; Chinese edition: Shanghai People's Publishing House, 2012; Spanish edition (''La Ópera: Una historia social'') Siruela, 2012; paperback 2016.''Hallelujah! An informal history of the London Philharmonic Choir''
London Philharmonic Choir, 2007''Historians''
Palgrave Macmillan, 2007, paperback edition, 2016''The Hitler Émigrés: The Cultural impact on Britain of Refugees from Nazism''
Chatto and Windus, 2002; Pimlico paperback 2003, reprinted 2010.''PastMasters: The Best of 'History Today' (ed)''
Sutton: 2001''Fins de Siècle''
(with Asa Briggs), Yale University press, 1996''Plácido Domingo's Tales From the Opera''
BBC Books, 1994; Amadeus Press, USA, 1995''Pole Positions: The Polar Regions and the Future of the Planet''
Hodder & Stoughton, 1993; Random House, Canada, 1993; Lubbe, 1994. It was this book that led the editors ofNew Scientist
''New Scientist'' is a magazine covering all aspects of science and technology. Based in London, it publishes weekly English-language editions in the United Kingdom, the United States and Australia. An editorially separate organisation publish ...
to the concept of nominative determinism
Nominative determinism is the hypothesis that people tend to gravitate towards areas of work that fit their names. The term was first used in the magazine ''New Scientist'' in 1994, after the magazine's humorous "Feedback" column noted several ...
, the hypothesis that people tend to gravitate towards areas of work that fit their name.
''Beyond the Tunnel of History: the 1989 BBC Reith Lectures''
(with Jacques Darras), Macmillan (UK) and the University of Michigan Press, USA, 1990''The World of Plácido Domingo''
The Bodley Head and McGraw-Hill, 1985; Arrow paperback 1986; ''Die Welt des Plácido Domingo'', Schweizer Verlagshaus, 1986; new edition ''Domingo'', 1992; Schott edition 1994; ''El Mundo de Plácido Domingo'', Versal, Barcelona, 1986; Japanese edition, 1988; Hungarian edition, 1989''The Amadeus Quartet: The Men and the Music''
Robson Books, 1981; ''Le Quattuor Amadeus'', Buchet/Chastel, 1981''If I Had Been ... Ten Historical Fantasies (ed)''
Robson Books, 1979''Kissing Cousins: An Interpretation of British and American Culture, 1945–1975''
Temple Smith, 1977; published in USA as ''Britain and America: An Interpretation of their Culture'', New York University Press/Harper and Row, 1977; adapted and translated for use in Japan as English-language text, Kinseido Ltd, Tokyo''Eleanor Roosevelt''
Edito-Service, 1970; English and French language editions''America Since 1920''
Harper and Row, 1968, and by Batsford, 1968 as ''USA: The Twenties to Vietnam''. Republished in revised updated edition as ''America Since 1920'' by Heinemann Educational Books, 1978, 1980, 1984References
External links
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Snowman, Daniel 1938 births Living people English historians Social historians Cultural historians