David Kenneth Fieldhouse, FBA (7 June 1925 – 28 October 2018) was an English historian of the

British Empire The British Empire was composed of the dominions, colonies, protectorates, mandates, and other territories ruled or administered by the United Kingdom and its predecessor states. It began with the overseas possessions and trading posts esta ...

who between 1981 and 1992 held the Vere Harmsworth Professorship of Imperial and Naval History at the

University of Cambridge , mottoeng = Literal: From here, light and sacred draughts. Non literal: From this place, we gain enlightenment and precious knowledge. , established = , other_name = The Chancellor, Masters and Schola ...

. Arguably the world's "leading imperial economic historian" he is most well known for his book, ''Economics and Empire, 1830–1914'' (1973), which offered a trenchant account of how political and strategic factors, rather than economic impulses, comprised the primary motors of European imperial expansion. Fieldhouse is a critic of the theories of imperialism put forward in the early 20th century by John A. Hobson and

Lenin Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov. ( 1870 – 21 January 1924), better known as Vladimir Lenin,. was a Russian revolutionary, politician, and political theorist. He served as the first and founding head of government of Soviet Russia from 1917 to 19 ...

. He argues that they used superficial arguments and weak evidence. Fieldhouse says that the "obvious driving force of British expansion since 1870" came from explorers, missionaries, engineers, and empire-minded politicians. They had little interest in financial investments. Hobson's approach was to say that faceless financiers manipulated everyone else. "The final determination rests with the financial power." Lenin made the argument that capitalism was in its last stages and had been taken over by monopolists. They were no longer dynamic and sought to maintain profits by even more intensive exploitation of protected markets. Fieldhouse rejects these arguments as unfounded speculation.David K. Fieldhouse, "'Imperialism': An Historiographical Revision." ''Economic History Review'' 14#2 (1961): 187-209
in JSTOR
/ref> During the course of his career he held academic posts at the

University of Canterbury The University of Canterbury ( mi, Te Whare Wānanga o Waitaha; postnominal abbreviation ''Cantuar.'' or ''Cant.'' for ''Cantuariensis'', the Latin name for Canterbury) is a public research university based in Christchurch, New Zealand. It was ...

Oxford University Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the ...

, and

Cambridge University , mottoeng = Literal: From here, light and sacred draughts. Non literal: From this place, we gain enlightenment and precious knowledge. , established = , other_name = The Chancellor, Masters and Schola ...

. Upon his retirement from Cambridge in 1992 his former students and colleagues published a

festschrift In academia, a ''Festschrift'' (; plural, ''Festschriften'' ) is a book honoring a respected person, especially an academic, and presented during their lifetime. It generally takes the form of an edited volume, containing contributions from the h ...

entitled, ''Managing the Business of Empire: Essays in Honour of David Fieldhouse''. Fieldhouse remained an active Emeritus Fellow of

Jesus College, Cambridge Jesus College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. The college's full name is The College of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Saint John the Evangelist and the glorious Virgin Saint Radegund, near Cambridge. Its common name comes fr ...

in later life. He died in October 2018 at the age of 93.

Selected bibliography

* "'Imperialism': An Historiographical Revision1." ''Economic History Review'' (1961) 14#2 pp: 187–209
online
*''Colonial Empires: A Comparative Survey from the Eighteenth Century'' (1966) *''Economics and Empire, 1830–1914'' (1973) *''Colonialism, 1870–1945: An Introduction'' (1981) * "Can Humpty‐Dumpty be put together again? Imperial history in the 1980s." ''The Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth History'' (1984) 12#2 pp: 9-23
online
*''Black Africa, 1945–80: Economic Decolonization & Arrested Development'' (1986) *''Merchant Capital and Economic Decolonization: The United Africa Company, 1929-8''7 (1994) * ''The West and the Third World: Trade, Colonialism, Dependence and Development'' (Oxford: Blackwell, 1999) *''Western Imperialism in the Middle East, 1914–1958'' (2006)

References

External links

Personal webpage at Jesus College, Cambridge. 1925 births 2018 deaths Academics of the University of Oxford British historians Fellows of the British Academy Fellows of Jesus College, Cambridge Historians of South Asia Vere Harmsworth Professors of Imperial and Naval History {{UK-historian-stub

Selected bibliography

See also

References

Further reading

External links