Kevin M. Sharpe (26 January 1949 – 5 November 2011) was a

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 ...

, Director of the Centre for Renaissance and Early Modern Studies, Leverhulme Research Professor and Professor of Renaissance Studies at

Queen Mary, University of London , mottoeng = With united powers , established = 1785 – The London Hospital Medical College1843 – St Bartholomew's Hospital Medical College1882 – Westfield College1887 – East London College/Queen Mary College , type = Public researc ...

. He is best known for his work on the reign of

Charles I of England Charles I (19 November 1600 – 30 January 1649) was King of England, Scotland, and Ireland from 27 March 1625 until his execution in 1649. He was born into the House of Stuart as the second son of King James VI of Scotland, but after ...

.Kevin Sharpe obituary
The Guardian

Education and career

He studied as an undergraduate and postgraduate at

St Catherine's College, Oxford St Catherine's College (colloquially called St Catz or Catz) is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford and is the newest college admitting both undergraduate and graduate students. Tracing its roots back to 1868 (although t ...

, and from 1974 to 1978, he was a junior research fellow at

Oriel College, Oxford Oriel College () is a constituent college of the University of Oxford in Oxford, England. Located in Oriel Square, the college has the distinction of being the oldest royal foundation in Oxford (a title formerly claimed by University College, ...

. Formerly he was visiting Professor to Princeton, Stanford, The California Institute of Technology, The Australian National University and The Max Planck Institute, Göttingen. He was also lecturer at the University of Southampton, where he was awarded a personal chair in 1994. From 2001 he worked at the

University of Warwick , mottoeng = Mind moves matter , established = , type = Public research university , endowment = £7.0 million (2021) , budget = £698.2 million (2020 ...

, and from 2005 at

Queen Mary University of London , mottoeng = With united powers , established = 1785 – The London Hospital Medical College1843 – St Bartholomew's Hospital Medical College1882 – Westfield College1887 – East London College/Queen Mary College , type = Public researc ...

. During the late 1970s and 1980s, Sharpe, together with scholars such as

Conrad Russell Conrad Sebastian Robert Russell, 5th Earl Russell, (15 April 1937 – 14 October 2004), was a British historian and politician. His parents were the philosopher and mathematician Bertrand Russell and his third wife Patricia Russell. He was a ...

, John Morrill, and

Mark Kishlansky Mark Kishlansky (October 11, 1948 – May 19, 2015) was an American historian of seventeenth-century British politics. He was the Frank Baird, Jr. Professor of History at Harvard University. Education and academic career Kishlansky was born i ...

, was labeled a revisionist political historian for his criticism of the so-called

Whig history Whig history (or Whig historiography) is an approach to historiography that presents history as a journey from an oppressive and benighted past to a "glorious present". The present described is generally one with modern forms of liberal democracy ...

's narrative of the English Revolution. Particularly, Sharpe advocated a revisionist interpretation of the period in English history beginning from the Caroline period towards the English Revolution, suggesting that the English nation during the 1620s was not as divided as traditionally portrayed. As a leading revisionist, he welcomed the shift towards increased role of literary and artistic representations in the chronicle of early modern politics.

Publications

* ''Reading Authority and Representing Rule in Early Modern England'', Bloomsbury, 2013 * ''Image Wars: Promoting Kings and Commonwealths in England, 1603-1660'',

Yale University Press Yale University Press is the university press of Yale University. It was founded in 1908 by George Parmly Day, and became an official department of Yale University in 1961, but it remains financially and operationally autonomous. , Yale Univers ...

, 2010, * ''Selling the Tudor Monarchy: Authority and Image in Sixteenth Century England'', YUP, 2009, * ''Remapping Early Modern England: The Culture of Seventeenth-Century Politics'', Cambridge University Press, 2000, * ''Reading Revolutions: The Politics of Reading in Early Modern England'', Yale University Press, 2000, * ''The Personal Rule of Charles I'', Yale University Press, 1992, * ''Criticism and Compliment: The Politics of Literature in the England of Charles I'',

CUP A cup is an open-top used to hold hot or cold liquids for pouring or drinking; while mainly used for drinking, it also can be used to store solids for pouring (e.g., sugar, flour, grains, salt). Cups may be made of glass, metal, china, cl ...

, 1987, * ''Sir Robert Cotton, 1586-1631: History and Politics in Early Modern England'',

OUP Oxford University Press (OUP) is the university press of the University of Oxford. It is the largest university press in the world, and its printing history dates back to the 1480s. Having been officially granted the legal right to print books ...

, 1979, As editor: *

Honors

* Fellow 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 ...

since 1979Kevin Sharpe, 1949-2011
Times Higher Education * Fellow of the English Association since 2002. * Whitfield prize of the Royal Historical Society for his book of 1987, ''Criticism and Compliment: The Politics of Literature in the England of Charles I'' * Fletcher Jones research professor at the

Huntington Library The Huntington Library, Art Museum and Botanical Gardens, known as The Huntington, is a collections-based educational and research institution established by Henry E. Huntington (1850–1927) and Arabella Huntington (c.1851–1924) in San Ma ...

* Mellon professor at the

California Institute of Technology The California Institute of Technology (branded as Caltech or CIT)The university itself only spells its short form as "Caltech"; the institution considers other spellings such a"Cal Tech" and "CalTech" incorrect. The institute is also occasional ...

References

External links

Kevin Sharpe, BA MA DPhil (Oxford) Leverhulme Research Professor and Professor of Renaissance Studies
Department of English, Queen Mary University of London 1949 births 2011 deaths 20th-century British historians 21st-century British historians Fellows of the English Association English Revolution {{UK-historian-stub