Hugh Swynnerton Thomas, Baron Thomas of Swynnerton (21 October 1931 – 7 May 2017) was an English historian and writer, best known for his book ''

The Spanish Civil War The Spanish Civil War ( es, Guerra Civil Española)) or The Revolution ( es, La Revolución, link=no) among Nationalists, the Fourth Carlist War ( es, Cuarta Guerra Carlista, link=no) among Carlism, Carlists, and The Rebellion ( es, La Rebeli ...

''.

Early life

Thomas was born on 21 October 1931 in Windsor, England, to Hugh Whitelegge Thomas, a colonial commissioner, and his wife Margery Augusta Angelo, ''

née A birth name is the name of a person given upon birth. The term may be applied to the surname, the given name, or the entire name. Where births are required to be officially registered, the entire name entered onto a birth certificate or birth re ...

'' Swynnerton. Sir Shenton Thomas was his uncle. He was educated at Sherborne School in Dorset, before taking a BA in 1951 at

Queens' College, Cambridge Queens' College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Queens' is one of the oldest colleges of the university, founded in 1448 by Margaret of Anjou. The college spans the River Cam, colloquially referred to as the "light s ...

, where he was a major scholar and was later an Honorary Fellow. Thomas gained a first class in Part I of the History Tripos in 1952, and the following year was president of the Cambridge Union Society. He also studied at the Sorbonne in Paris.

Career

From 1954 to 1957, Thomas worked in the

Foreign Office Foreign may refer to: Government * Foreign policy, how a country interacts with other countries * Ministry of Foreign Affairs, in many countries ** Foreign Office, a department of the UK government ** Foreign office and foreign minister * Unit ...

partly as secretary of the British Delegation to the sub-committee of the

UN Disarmament Commission The United Nations Disarmament Commission (UNDC) is a United Nations commission under the United Nations General Assembly which primarily deals with issues relating to Disarmament. History The United Nations Disarmament Commission was first estab ...

. From 1966 to 1975, he was Professor of History at the University of Reading, and chairman of the European committee. He was then chairman of the neoliberal Centre for Policy Studies in London from 1979 to 1991.

Politics

Until 1974, Thomas was a member of the Labour Party. He was created a

life peer In the United Kingdom, life peers are appointed members of the peerage whose titles cannot be inherited, in contrast to hereditary peers. In modern times, life peerages, always created at the rank of baron, are created under the Life Peerages ...

as Baron Thomas of Swynnerton, ''of Notting Hill in

Greater London Greater may refer to: *Greatness, the state of being great *Greater than, in inequality (mathematics), inequality *Greater (film), ''Greater'' (film), a 2016 American film *Greater (flamingo), the oldest flamingo on record *Greater (song), "Greate ...

'' by

letters patent Letters patent ( la, litterae patentes) ( always in the plural) are a type of legal instrument in the form of a published written order issued by a monarch, president or other head of state, generally granting an office, right, monopoly, titl ...

dated 16 June 1981, and sat as a Conservative, before he joined the Liberal Democrats in 1998. He later sat as a

crossbencher A crossbencher is an independent or minor party member of some legislatures, such as the British House of Lords and the Parliament of Australia. They take their name from the crossbenches, between and perpendicular to the government and oppositi ...

. He wrote political works favouring

European integration European integration is the process of industrial, economic integration, economic, political, legal, social integration, social, and cultural Regional integration, integration of states wholly or partially in Europe or nearby. European integrat ...

, such as ''Europe: the Radical Challenge'' (1973), as well as histories. He was also the author of three novels: ''The World's Game'' (1957), ''The Oxygen Age'' (1958), and ''Klara'' (1988). Thomas's 1961 book ''

'' won the Somerset Maugham Award for 1962. A significantly revised and enlarged third edition was published in 1977; further editions were published in 1999 and 2012. '' Cuba, or the Pursuit of Freedom'' (1971) is a book of over 1,500 pages tracing the history of Cuba from Spanish colonial rule until the Cuban Revolution. In 1985, he signed a petition against the Sandinista National Liberation Front of Nicaragua, in support of the

Contras The Contras were the various U.S.-backed and funded right-wing rebel groups that were active from 1979 to 1990 in opposition to the Marxist Sandinista Junta of National Reconstruction Government in Nicaragua, which came to power in 1979 fol ...

, an anti-Sandinista paramilitary group. In 1990 he was one of the leading historians behind the setting up of the History Curriculum Association. The Association advocated a more knowledge-based history curriculum in schools. It expressed "profound disquiet" at the way history was being taught in the classroom and observed that the integrity of history was threatened.

Personal life

Thomas was married to Hon. Vanessa Jebb, a

painter Painting is the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a solid surface (called the "matrix" or "support"). The medium is commonly applied to the base with a brush, but other implements, such as knives, sponges, and ai ...

and daughter of Gladwyn Jebb, the first Acting United Nations Secretary-General and British Ambassador to France. They had three children: Inigo, Isambard and Isabella.

Awards

Thomas won the Somerset Maugham Award (1962), the Nonino Prize (2009), the Boccaccio Prize (2009), the Gabarrón Prize (2008) and the Calvo Serer Prize (2009). The

French Government The Government of France ( French: ''Gouvernement français''), officially the Government of the French Republic (''Gouvernement de la République française'' ), exercises executive power in France. It is composed of the Prime Minister, who ...

appointed him

Commander Commander (commonly abbreviated as Cmdr.) is a common naval officer rank. Commander is also used as a rank or title in other formal organizations, including several police forces. In several countries this naval rank is termed frigate captain. ...

of the

Order of Arts and Letters The ''Ordre des Arts et des Lettres'' (Order of Arts and Letters) is an order of France established on 2 May 1957 by the Minister of Culture. Its supplementary status to the was confirmed by President Charles de Gaulle in 1963. Its purpose is ...

in 2008. Thomas also received the Grand Cross of the

Royal Order of Isabella the Catholic The Order of Isabella the Catholic ( es, Orden de Isabel la Católica) is a Spanish civil order and honor granted to persons and institutions in recognition of extraordinary services to the homeland or the promotion of international relations a ...

from Spain, as well as the

Mexican Mexican may refer to: Mexico and its culture *Being related to, from, or connected to the country of Mexico, in North America ** People *** Mexicans, inhabitants of the country Mexico and their descendants *** Mexica, ancient indigenous people ...

Order of the Aztec Eagle, the Joaquín Romero Murube Prize in Seville (2013) and the Grand Cross of the

Civil Order of Alfonso X the Wise The Civil Order of Alfonso X the Wise ( es, Orden Civil de Alfonso X el Sabio) is a Spanish civil order established in 1939, recognising activities in the fields of education, science, culture, higher education and research. The order was create ...

(2014).

Works

* ''Disarmament – the way ahead'' Fabian Society (1957). * ''

'' (1961); Penguin Books Ltd (1968); 2nd revised edition (1977); 4th revised edition (2003). A new revised edition in 2011''The Spanish Civil War'': Revised Edition (Modern Library Paperbacks),

Modern Library The Modern Library is an American book publishing imprint and formerly the parent company of Random House. Founded in 1917 by Albert Boni and Horace Liveright as an imprint of their publishing company Boni & Liveright, Modern Library became an ...

, commemorated the book's reaching 50 consecutive years in print; it was published in 15 languages
online
* ''Cuba or the Pursuit of Freedom'' (1971); revised editions (1998), (2002), (2010)
online
* ''Europe: the Radical Challenge'' (1973). * '' John Strachey'' (1973)
online
* ''An Unfinished History of the World'' (1979); published in the United States as ''A History of the World'', then as ''World History'' (1998); and under the original title in London (by

Hamish Hamilton Hamish Hamilton Limited was a British book publishing house, founded in 1931 eponymously by the half-Scot half-American Jamie Hamilton (''Hamish'' is the vocative form of the Gaelic Seumas eaning James ''James'' the English form – which was ...

) in 1979, and with revised editions in 1981 and 1982
online edition
* ''The revolution on balance'' (1983), Washington, DC; Cuban American National Foundation 1983 (CANF pamphlet #5)
online
* ''Armed Truce'' (1986). A history of the beginning of the

Cold War The Cold War is a term commonly used to refer to a period of geopolitical tension between the United States and the Soviet Union and their respective allies, the Western Bloc and the Eastern Bloc. The term '' cold war'' is used because the ...

online
* ''Ever Closer Union'' (1991). * ''The conquest of Mexico'' (1993); published in the United States as ''Conquest: Montezuma, Cortés and the Fall of Old Mexico''
online
* ''The Slave Trade: The History of the

Atlantic Slave Trade The Atlantic slave trade, transatlantic slave trade, or Euro-American slave trade involved the transportation by slave traders of enslaved African people, mainly to the Americas. The slave trade regularly used the triangular trade route and i ...

1440–1870'' (1997); Simon & Schuster
online
* ''Who Is Who of the Conquistadors'' (2000). A study of those who fought for Cortés. * ''Rivers of Gold'' (2003); the first book in a trilogy about the Spanish Empire
online
* '' Beaumarchais in Seville'' (2006); . * ''Eduardo Barreiros and the Recovery of Spain'' (2009); a biography of Eduardo Barreiros. * ''The Golden Age: The Spanish Empire of Charles V'' (2010); the second book in a trilogy about the Spanish Empire. Published in the United States as ''The Golden Empire: Spain, Charles V, and the Creation of America'' (2011). * ''The World's Game''; a novel (1957). * ''The Oxygen Age''; a novel (1958). * ''Klara'', a novel (1988). * ''The Suez Affair'' (1966); an analysis of the

Suez Crisis The Suez Crisis, or the Second Arab–Israeli war, also called the Tripartite Aggression ( ar, العدوان الثلاثي, Al-ʿUdwān aṯ-Ṯulāṯiyy) in the Arab world and the Sinai War in Israel,Also known as the Suez War or 1956 Wa ...

of 1956. * ''World Without End: The Global Empire of Philip II'' (2014); the third volume in a trilogy about the Spanish Empire.

Arms

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Thomas, Hugh 1931 births 2017 deaths People from Windsor, Berkshire People educated at Sherborne School British historians British Hispanists University of Paris alumni Crossbench life peers Presidents of the Cambridge Union Alumni of Queens' College, Cambridge Fellows of the Royal Society of Literature Commandeurs of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres Knights Grand Cross of the Order of Isabella the Catholic Historians of Spain Recipients of the Civil Order of Alfonso X, the Wise Liberal Democrats (UK) life peers Conservative Party (UK) life peers Historians of the Spanish Civil War