Thomas Lionel Hodgkin (3 April 1910 – 25 March 1982) was an English

Marxist Marxism is a Left-wing politics, left-wing to Far-left politics, far-left method of socioeconomic analysis that uses a Materialism, materialist interpretation of historical development, better known as historical materialism, to understand S ...

historian of Africa "who did more than anyone to establish the serious study of African history" in the UK. He was married to the

Nobel Prize The Nobel Prizes ( ; sv, Nobelpriset ; no, Nobelprisen ) are five separate prizes that, according to Alfred Nobel's will of 1895, are awarded to "those who, during the preceding year, have conferred the greatest benefit to humankind." Alfr ...

-winning scientist

Dorothy Hodgkin Dorothy Mary Crowfoot Hodgkin (née Crowfoot; 12 May 1910 – 29 July 1994) was a Nobel Prize-winning British chemist who advanced the technique of X-ray crystallography to determine the structure of biomolecules, which became essential fo ...

Early life

Thomas Lionel Hodgkin was born at Mendip House,

Headington Hill Headington Hill is a hill in the east of Oxford, England, in the suburb of Headington. The Headington Road goes up the hill leading out of the city. There are good views of the spires of Oxford from the hill, especially from the top of South Park ...

, near Oxford. Named after his grandfather, the historian

Thomas Hodgkin Thomas Hodgkin RMS (17 August 1798 – 5 April 1866) was a British physician, considered one of the most prominent pathologists of his time and a pioneer in preventive medicine. He is now best known for the first account of Hodgkin's disease, ...

, he was the son of

Robert Howard Hodgkin Robert Howard "Robin" Hodgkin (24 April 1877 – 28 June 1951) was an English historian. He taught at The Queen's College, Oxford, Queen's College, Oxford, from 1900 to 1937 and served as its Provost (education), provost from 1937 until 1946. ...

, Provost of

Queen's College, Oxford The Queen's College is a constituent college of the University of Oxford, England. The college was founded in 1341 by Robert de Eglesfield in honour of Philippa of Hainault. It is distinguished by its predominantly neoclassical architecture, ...

, and Dorothy Forster Smith, daughter of the historian Alfred Lionel Smith.Michael Wolfers
"Hodgkin, Thomas Lionel (1910–1982)"
''

Oxford Dictionary of National Biography The ''Dictionary of National Biography'' (''DNB'') is a standard work of reference on notable figures from British history, published since 1885. The updated ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'' (''ODNB'') was published on 23 September ...

'', Oxford University Press, September 2004; online edn, January 2008; accessed 15 January 2010. Hodgkin was an exhibitioner at

Winchester Winchester is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city in Hampshire, England. The city lies at the heart of the wider City of Winchester, a local government Districts of England, district, at the western end of the South Downs Nation ...

and from 1928 to 1932 a classics scholar at

Balliol College, Oxford Balliol College () is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England. One of Oxford's oldest colleges, it was founded around 1263 by John I de Balliol, a landowner from Barnard Castle in County Durham, who provided the f ...

, where he also held a Higgs Memorial scholarship in English. He obtained a Second in Classical Moderations in 1930 and a First in ''Literae Humaniores'' or "Greats" (philosophy and ancient history) in 1932.''Oxford University Calendar 1932'', Oxford : Clarendon Press, 1932, 318; ''Oxford University Calendar 1935'', Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1935, 207.

Palestine and the WEA

A senior

demyship A demyship (also "demy" for the recipient) is a form of scholarship at Magdalen College, Oxford. The term is derived from ''demi-socii'' or ''half-fellows'', being historically entitled to half the allowance awarded to Fellows. The allowance is n ...

Magdalen College, Oxford Magdalen College (, ) is a constituent college of the University of Oxford. It was founded in 1458 by William of Waynflete. Today, it is the fourth wealthiest college, with a financial endowment of £332.1 million as of 2019 and one of the s ...

, 1932–33, enabled him to travel; he spent the years on

John Garstang John Garstang (5 May 1876 – 12 September 1956) was a British archaeologist of the Ancient Near East, especially Egypt, Sudan, Anatolia and the southern Levant. He was the younger brother of Professor Walter Garstang, FRS, a marine biol ...

's archaeological dig at

Jericho Jericho ( ; ar, أريحا ; he, יְרִיחוֹ ) is a Palestinian city in the West Bank. It is located in the Jordan Valley, with the Jordan River to the east and Jerusalem to the west. It is the administrative seat of the Jericho Gove ...

. From 1934 to 1936 Hodgkin was in the

Palestine __NOTOC__ Palestine may refer to: * State of Palestine, a state in Western Asia * Palestine (region), a geographic region in Western Asia * Palestinian territories, territories occupied by Israel since 1967, namely the West Bank (including East ...

civil service, for some time being a personal secretary to High Commissioner Wauchope. There, Hodgkin started to become critical of British imperialism. Resigning from the colonial service after the April 1936 Arab uprising, he hoped to stay in Palestine but was ordered to leave by the British administration. Returning to London, where he stayed with his father's cousin,

Margery Fry __NOTOC__ Margery is a heavily buffered, lightly populated hamlet in the Reigate and Banstead district, in the English county of Surrey. It sits on the North Downs, is bordered by the London Orbital Motorway, at a lower altitude, and its predom ...

, and joined the

Communist Party A communist party is a political party that seeks to realize the socio-economic goals of communism. The term ''communist party'' was popularized by the title of ''The Manifesto of the Communist Party'' (1848) by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. A ...

, Hodgkin briefly tried training as a schoolteacher, before entering adult education. He met and married Dorothy Crowfoot in 1937. In 1939, declared ineligible for military service on medical grounds (he suffered from

narcolepsy Narcolepsy is a long-term neurological disorder that involves a decreased ability to regulate sleep–wake cycles. Symptoms often include periods of excessive daytime sleepiness and brief involuntary sleep episodes. About 70% of those affec ...

), Hodgkin became a

Workers' Educational Association The Workers' Educational Association (WEA), founded in 1903, is the UK's largest voluntary sector provider of adult education and one of Britain's biggest charities. The WEA is a democratic and voluntary adult education movement. It delivers lea ...

tutor in north

Staffordshire Staffordshire (; postal abbreviation Staffs.) is a landlocked county in the West Midlands region of England. It borders Cheshire to the northwest, Derbyshire and Leicestershire to the east, Warwickshire to the southeast, the West Midlands Cou ...

. In September 1945 he became Secretary of the Oxford Delegacy for Extra-Mural Studies, and a Balliol fellow."HODGKIN, Thomas Lionel"
''Who Was Who'', A & C Black, 1920–2008; online edn, Oxford University Press, December 2007; accessed 15 January 2010.

Travels in Africa

He first visited the

Gold Coast Gold Coast may refer to: Places Africa * Gold Coast (region), in West Africa, which was made up of the following colonies, before being established as the independent nation of Ghana: ** Portuguese Gold Coast (Portuguese, 1482–1642) ** Dutch G ...

in 1947, and became interested in African history as well as the contemporary problems of African nationalism. Befriending

Kwame Nkrumah Kwame Nkrumah (born 21 September 190927 April 1972) was a Ghanaian politician, political theorist, and revolutionary. He was the first Prime Minister and President of Ghana, having led the Gold Coast to independence from Britain in 1957. An in ...

in 1951, he published a pamphlet for the

Union of Democratic Control The Union of Democratic Control was a British pressure group formed in 1914 to press for a more responsive foreign policy. While not a pacifist organisation, it was opposed to military influence in government. World War I The impetus for the ...

supporting independence for the Gold Coast. In 1952 Hodgkin left his Oxford job and travelled in Africa. After publishing ''Nationalism in Colonial Africa'' (1956), he became interested in Africa's Islamic history.

Northwestern, McGill, Legon and Balliol

He took part-time appointments at

Northwestern University Northwestern University is a private research university in Evanston, Illinois. Founded in 1851, Northwestern is the oldest chartered university in Illinois and is ranked among the most prestigious academic institutions in the world. Charte ...

(Illinois) and

McGill University McGill University (french: link=no, Université McGill) is an English-language public research university located in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Founded in 1821 by royal charter granted by King George IV,Frost, Stanley Brice. ''McGill Universit ...

(Montreal), was joint secretary of a commission on reform of Ghana's universities, and in 1962 returned to Ghana for three years to head the new

Institute of African Studies The Institute of African Studies on the Anne Jiagee road on campus of the University of Ghana at Legon is an interdisciplinary research institute in the humanities and social sciences. It was established by President Kwame Nkrumah in 1962 to encou ...

at the

University of Ghana The University of Ghana is a public university located in Accra, Ghana. It the oldest and largest of the thirteen Ghanaian national public universities. The university was founded in 1948 as the University College of the Gold Coast in the Br ...

. From 1965 until his 1970 retirement he was Lecturer in the Government of New States at Oxford University.

Works

*"Hating Italy", ''Red Rags : Essays of Hate from Oxford'', ed. R. C. Carr, London: Chapman & Hall, 1933, 161–176 *''Nationalism in Colonial Africa'' (Frederick Muller, 1956. 2nd edn, 1957. E-Book 2008) *(ed.) ''Nigerian Perspectives'' (Oxford University Press, 1960. 2nd edn, 1975) *
African Political Parties
' (Penguin Books, 1961) *''Vietnam: the Revolutionary Path'' (Macmillan, 1981)

References

Sources

*C. Allen and R. W. Johnson, eds., ''African Perspectives: papers in the history, politics and economics of Africa presented to Thomas Hodgkin'' (Cambridge University Press, 1970) * Michael Wolfers, ''Thomas Hodgkin: Wandering Scholar - A Biography'' (Merlin Press, 2007) * E. C. Hodgkin (ed.), ''Thomas Hodgkin. Letters from Palestine, 1932-36'' (Quartet Books, 1986) * Michael Wolfers & Elizabeth Hodgkin (eds), ''Thomas Hodgkin: Letters from Africa, 1947-56'' (HAAN Publishing, 2000) {{DEFAULTSORT:Hodgkin, Thomas Lionel 1910 births 1982 deaths Historians of Africa Thomas Lionel English Africanists Fellows of Balliol College, Oxford 20th-century English historians Administrators of Palestine British Marxist historians People from Oxford People educated at Winchester College Alumni of Balliol College, Oxford Historians of Nigeria Communist Party of Great Britain members Workers' Educational Association 20th-century Quakers