John Fletcher Clews Harrison (28 February 1921 – 8 January 2018), usually cited as J. F. C. Harrison, was a British academic who was Professor of History 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
, ...
and author of books on history, particularly relating to Victorian Britain.
Career
Harrison was born in
Leicester
Leicester ( ) is a city status in the United Kingdom, city, Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority and the county town of Leicestershire in the East Midlands of England. It is the largest settlement in the East Midlands.
The city l ...
in 1921. He was educated at
City Boys' School and at
Selwyn College, Cambridge
Selwyn College, Cambridge (formally Selwyn College in the University of Cambridge) is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. The college was founded in 1882 by the Selwyn Memorial Committee in memory of George Augustus Selwyn ( ...
. During World War II he served in the
British Army
The British Army is the principal land warfare force of the United Kingdom, a part of the British Armed Forces along with the Royal Navy and the Royal Air Force. , the British Army comprises 79,380 regular full-time personnel, 4,090 Gurkha ...
as a captain in the 17th (Uganda) Battalion of the
King's African Rifles
The King's African Rifles (KAR) was a multi-battalion British colonial regiment raised from Britain's various possessions in East Africa from 1902 until independence in the 1960s. It performed both military and internal security functions within ...
. After the war he became a lecturer, then Deputy Director of the Department of Adult Education and Extra-Mural Studies at the
University of Leeds
, mottoeng = And knowledge will be increased
, established = 1831 – Leeds School of Medicine1874 – Yorkshire College of Science1884 - Yorkshire College1887 – affiliated to the federal Victoria University1904 – University of Leeds
, ...
. From 1961 to 1970 he was Professor of History at
University of Wisconsin
A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United Stat ...
. He then was appointed Professor of Social History at the University of Sussex, where he remained until his retirement. He has held visiting appointments at
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 highe ...
and the
Australian National University
The Australian National University (ANU) is a public research university located in Canberra, the capital of Australia. Its main campus in Acton encompasses seven teaching and research colleges, in addition to several national academies an ...
.
He died on 8 January 2018 at the age of 96. An extended obituary by
Malcolm Chase
Malcolm Sherwin Chase (3 February 1957 – 29 February 2020) was a social historian noted especially for his work on Chartism.
Early life and education
Chase was born in Grays to the carpenter (later building surveyor) Sherwin Chase and bank cl ...
was published in the Labour History Review in 2019
Work
'John Harrison writes always for an informed general public and not for examiners or fellow specialists',
E. P. Thompson
Edward Palmer Thompson (3 February 1924 – 28 August 1993) was an English historian, writer, socialist and peace campaigner. He is best known today for his historical work on the radical movements in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, in ...
once commented, adding that 'he writes always with clarity, in an unhurried, authoritative, economical style'. Thompson and Harrison had been colleagues in the University of Leeds Adult Education Department, and the years that they spent teaching adult students in 'extramural' classes up and down Yorkshire shaped their determination to make academic history as accessible as possible. That was also reflected in Harrison's formative role in the UK Society for the Study of Labour History, of which he was the first secretary.
[Joan Allen, Alan Campbell and John McIlroy, ''Histories of Labour: National and International Perspectives'' (2010), p. 28.] At the heart of Harrison's achievement as a historian are three books.
# ''Learning & Living'' (1961), described as 'the most influential and widely read work in the field of adult education history'.
['John Harrison: an appreciation', ''Living and Learning'', ed. M.Chase and I.Dyck (1996), p. 1.]
# ''Robert Owen & the Owenites in Britain and America'' (1969), published in the USA under its subtitle ''The Quest for a New Moral World''.
# ''The Second Coming: Popular Millenarianism, 1780–1850''. In his conclusion, Harrison commented: 'We see only as through a glass, darkly. At the end of this book it is apparent how little we know about what ordinary people "think and feel"'. However, the editors of his ''festschrift'' (see Honours below) believed that Harrison 'as much as any historian of the nineteenth century, has opened up the history of ordinary people, their thought and feelings. His work is anything but doctrinaire, and it has eschewed preoccupation with narrow, male-dominated, labour movement institutions'.
John Harrison's autobiography (''Scholarship Boy: A Personal History of the Mid-Twentieth Century'', 1995) is informative about not only the author's academic career but also life in prewar Leicester and military service with the King's African Rifles.
Honours
For his 75th birthday his lifetime's work was celebrated by his colleagues with 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 ...
:
*
This original collection of critical essays on issues of eighteenth- and nineteenth-century rural life, popular politics and beliefs brought together fifteen well-known historians. All were associated with Harrison, and all shared his interest in the importance of the personal in history, as opposed to the history of impersonal institutions. Among the essays on popular belief were studies of
millenarianism
Millenarianism or millenarism (from Latin , "containing a thousand") is the belief by a religious, social, or political group or movement in a coming fundamental transformation of society, after which "all things will be changed". Millenarian ...
, the
secularist tradition and a case study of American
Muggletonianism – the last by
E. P. Thompson
Edward Palmer Thompson (3 February 1924 – 28 August 1993) was an English historian, writer, socialist and peace campaigner. He is best known today for his historical work on the radical movements in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, in ...
. Other essays addressed
Owenism
Owenism is the utopian socialist philosophy of 19th-century social reformer Robert Owen and his followers and successors, who are known as Owenites. Owenism aimed for radical reform of society and is considered a forerunner of the cooperative ...
,
Chartism
Chartism was a working-class movement for political reform in the United Kingdom that erupted from 1838 to 1857 and was strongest in 1839, 1842 and 1848. It took its name from the People's Charter of 1838 and was a national protest movement, ...
, the
Chartist Land Plan, gender and autobiography, vegetarianism and popular journalism. There were critical evaluations of the influence of America on British radicalism and socialism, on the motives that drove workers' children to become teachers, and on the construction of images of English rural life.
Works
*
*
*
*
*
*
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* (with
Isobel Armstrong
Isobel Armstrong, (born 1937) is a British academic. She is professor emerita of English at Birkbeck, University of London and a senior research fellow of the Institute of English Studies at the University of London. She is a fellow of the Bri ...
, Basil Taylor)
* (with
Dorothy Thompson
Dorothy Celene Thompson (July 9, 1893 – January 30, 1961) was an American journalist and radio broadcaster. She was the first American journalist to be expelled from Nazi Germany in 1934 and was one of the few women news commentators on radio ...
)
*
*
*
*
*
References
External links
John F. C. Harrison papers, MSS 2048a
L. Tom Perry Special Collections Brigham Young University
Brigham Young University (BYU, sometimes referred to colloquially as The Y) is a private research university in Provo, Utah. It was founded in 1875 by religious leader Brigham Young and is sponsored by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-d ...
{{DEFAULTSORT:Harrison, J. F. C.
1921 births
2018 deaths
Academics of the University of Leeds
Academics of the University of Sussex
Alumni of Selwyn College, Cambridge
Australian National University faculty
British historians
Harvard University staff
King's African Rifles officers
People educated at City of Leicester Boys' Grammar School
University of Wisconsin–Madison faculty