Holden Furber (13 March 1903 – 19 January 1993) was a professor of South Asia Studies at the University of Pennsylvania from 1952 till 1973. He was the twenty-first president of the
Association for Asian Studies and a scholar who specialized in the history of
India
India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...
during the time of the
British Raj
The British Raj (; from Hindi ''rāj'': kingdom, realm, state, or empire) was the rule of the British Crown on the Indian subcontinent;
*
* it is also called Crown rule in India,
*
*
*
*
or Direct rule in India,
* Quote: "Mill, who was himsel ...
.
Born in
Boston
Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...
,
in 1903, Furber was almost entirely educated in the Boston area, where he attended
Brookline High School before graduating from
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...
in 1924. He received his doctorate from Harvard in 1929 and at the same time attended
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 ...
, where he completed a bachelor's degree in 1925 and a master's degree in 1930. In 1931, during his nine-year career as a lecturer at Harvard, he published his first book, ''Henry Dundas, First Viscount Melville'', followed within two years by his edition of ''The Correspondence of Sir John Shore, Governor General, with Henry Dundas, President of the Board of Control, 1793–1798''. Furber's potential as a young scholar was identified with the awarding of a
Guggenheim Fellowship
Guggenheim Fellowships are grants that have been awarded annually since by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation to those "who have demonstrated exceptional capacity for productive scholarship or exceptional creative ability in the ar ...
in 1937–1938. He was appointed to the post of assistant professor at the
University of Texas
The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin, UT, or Texas) is a public research university in Austin, Texas. It was founded in 1883 and is the oldest institution in the University of Texas System. With 40,916 undergraduate students, 11,075 ...
in 1940 but soon received an assignment to the
Office of Strategic Services
The Office of Strategic Services (OSS) was the intelligence agency of the United States during World War II. The OSS was formed as an agency of the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) to coordinate espionage activities behind enemy lines for all branc ...
(which later became the
CIA
The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA ), known informally as the Agency and historically as the Company, is a civilian intelligence agency, foreign intelligence service of the federal government of the United States, officially tasked with gat ...
) to work as a social science analyst after the United States entered the
Second World War
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
. From 1943 to 1945, Furber served the
US State Department as a specialist on the
British Commonwealth, before returning to the University of Texas, where he stayed until 1948.
It was at that point that Furber published what was regarded as his most creative book, ''John Company at Work''. For this study of the country trade in Asia, European trade from one point in Asia to another, Furber pored through
Dutch,
French
French (french: français(e), link=no) may refer to:
* Something of, from, or related to France
** French language, which originated in France, and its various dialects and accents
** French people, a nation and ethnic group identified with Franc ...
, and
Danish
Danish may refer to:
* Something of, from, or related to the country of Denmark
People
* A national or citizen of Denmark, also called a "Dane," see Demographics of Denmark
* Culture of Denmark
* Danish people or Danes, people with a Danish ance ...
, as well as British archives. He concluded that private British trading interests combined with Indian merchants to play a dynamic role in a network of trade which ultimately led to the establishment of the
British Raj
The British Raj (; from Hindi ''rāj'': kingdom, realm, state, or empire) was the rule of the British Crown on the Indian subcontinent;
*
* it is also called Crown rule in India,
*
*
*
*
or Direct rule in India,
* Quote: "Mill, who was himsel ...
in India. The
American Historical Association
The American Historical Association (AHA) is the oldest professional association of historians in the United States and the largest such organization in the world. Founded in 1884, the AHA works to protect academic freedom, develop professional s ...
recognised the book with the
Watumull Prize
The Watumull Prize (1945–82) was established in 1944 to recognize "the best book on the history of India originally published in the United States".
Recipients
See also
* List of history awards
References
{{Reflist
American Historical ...
in 1949. In the meantime, Furber lectured at the
University of Madras in 1948, before moving to the
University of Pennsylvania
The University of Pennsylvania (also known as Penn or UPenn) is a private research university in Philadelphia. It is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and is ranked among the highest-regarded universitie ...
, where he served as Professor of History until 1973. It was at Pennsylvania that he formed a close working relationship with
W. Norman Brown and significantly contributed to the building of a program for studying the
Indian subcontinent
The Indian subcontinent is a list of the physiographic regions of the world, physiographical region in United Nations geoscheme for Asia#Southern Asia, Southern Asia. It is situated on the Indian Plate, projecting southwards into the Indian O ...
. He traveled to India in 1962 to deliver the Heras Lectures at the
University of Bombay
The University of Mumbai is a collegiate, state-owned, public research university in Mumbai.
The University of Mumbai is one of the largest universities in the world. , the university had 711 affiliated colleges. Ratan Tata is the appointed ...
, which were published under the title ''The Bombay Presidency in the Mid-18th Century''. In 1965 co-edited the fifth volume of the series entitled ''The Correspondence of Edmund Burke''. This volume documented the period between July 1782 and June 1789 during which Burke's constructive interest in Indian affairs yielded to an "implacable determination" to defeat Hastings in the latter's impeachment trial. Furber interpreted these letters as re-enforcement for the "view held in India today" that Burke was a "champion of
Bengal
Bengal ( ; bn, বাংলা/বঙ্গ, translit=Bānglā/Bôngô, ) is a geopolitical, cultural and historical region in South Asia, specifically in the eastern part of the Indian subcontinent at the apex of the Bay of Bengal, predom ...
's downtrodden millions."
Furber was a member of the
Royal Historical Society
The Royal Historical Society, founded in 1868, is a learned society of the United Kingdom which advances scholarly studies of history.
Origins
The society was founded and received its royal charter in 1868. Until 1872 it was known as the Histori ...
and was the president of the
Association for Asian Studies from 1968 to 1969. In retirement, he published his ambitious survey, ''Rival Empires of Trade in the Orient 1600–1800'', which applied the themes elucidated in ''John Company at Work'' back to earlier times. Furber's last book was dedicated to Elizabeth Chapin Furber, his first wife and a scholar of medieval
French history, who died at the time of his retirement. His second wife Lucy Richardson was the classmate of a widow, whom he escorted to his 50th reunion at Harvard. They married seven years later and they periodically lived at his summer home at
Marblehead, Massachusetts
Marblehead is a coastal New England town in Essex County, Massachusetts, along the North Shore (Massachusetts), North Shore. Its population was 20,441 at the 2020 United States Census, 2020 census. The town lies on a small peninsula that extends ...
, and her family home in
Concord, Massachusetts
Concord () is a town in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, in the United States. At the 2020 census, the town population was 18,491. The United States Census Bureau considers Concord part of Greater Boston. The town center is near where the conflu ...
. He died during his sleep on January 19, 1993 in
Bedford, Massachusetts.
References
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Furber, Holden
1993 deaths
1903 births
Harvard University alumni
20th-century American historians
American male non-fiction writers
Presidents of the Association for Asian Studies
Brookline High School alumni
20th-century American male writers
University of Pennsylvania faculty