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Richard Charles Cobb (20 May 1917 – 15 January 1996) was a British historian and essayist, and professor at the
University of Oxford , mottoeng = The Lord is my light , established = , endowment = £6.1 billion (including colleges) (2019) , budget = £2.145 billion (2019–20) , chancellor ...
. He was the author of numerous influential works about the
history of France The first written records for the history of France appeared in the Iron Age. What is now France made up the bulk of the region known to the Romans as Gaul. The first writings on indigenous populations mainly start in the first century BC. Gree ...
, particularly the
French Revolution The French Revolution ( ) was a period of radical political and societal change in France that began with the Estates General of 1789 and ended with the formation of the French Consulate in coup of 18 Brumaire, November 1799. Many of its ...
. Cobb meticulously researched the Revolutionary era from a ground-level view sometimes described as " history from below". Cobb is best known for his multi-volume work ''The People's Armies'' (1961), a massive study of the composition and mentality of the Revolution's civilian armed forces. He was a prolific writer of essays from which he fashioned numerous book-length collections about France and its people. Cobb also found much inspiration from his own life, and he composed a multitude of autobiographical writings and personal reflections. Much of his writing went unpublished in his lifetime, and several anthologies were assembled from it by other scholars after his death.


Education and career

Richard Cobb was born in London, England, during World War One (NB the biographical information to the right gives his birthplace as Frinton, Essex) the son of Francis Hills Cobb, who worked in the Sudan Civil Service, and his wife, Dora, daughter of Dr J. P. Swindale. After being educated at
Shrewsbury School Shrewsbury School is a public school (English independent boarding school for pupils aged 13 –18) in Shrewsbury. Founded in 1552 by Edward VI by Royal Charter, it was originally a boarding school for boys; girls have been admitted into ...
, he visited France for the first time. He stayed for a year and developed a passion for the country, its people and their history. Returning to England, he matriculated at Merton College, Oxford in 1935, and was awarded a second class degree in History in 1938. During 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 opposi ...
he was an instructor to the Polish Air Force, made
BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...
...
broadcasts in French, and 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 Gurk ...
. After his military discharge, Cobb returned to France and stayed for another nine years. During this time, Cobb honed his style of historical analysis. He worked closely with the French Marxist-school historians
Albert Soboul Albert Marius Soboul (27 April 1914 – 11 September 1982) was a historian of the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic periods. A professor at the Sorbonne, he was chair of the History of the French Revolution and author of numerous influential ...
and
George Rudé George Rudé (8 February 1910 – 8 January 1993) was a British Marxist historian, specializing in the French Revolution and " history from below", especially the importance of crowds in history.George Rudé (1964). ''The Crowd in History. A St ...
, frequently sharing research at the National Archives. Unable to obtain French citizenship, Cobb went back to England in 1955 for a succession of academic jobs. He taught at Aberystwyth University and 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 , ...
, before ultimately returning to Oxford, where he was elected as a tutorial fellow of
Balliol College 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 ...
in 1962. Eleven years later, he was made Professor of Modern History of Oxford University, a post with a fellowship at
Worcester College Worcester College is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England. The college was founded in 1714 by the benefaction of Sir Thomas Cookes, 2nd Baronet (1648–1701) of Norgrove, Worcestershire, whose coat of arms w ...
. He gave the 1974 Raleigh Lecture on History. Cobb returned to France repeatedly, sometimes to give courses of lectures at the
Collège de France The Collège de France (), formerly known as the ''Collège Royal'' or as the ''Collège impérial'' founded in 1530 by François I, is a higher education and research establishment ('' grand établissement'') in France. It is located in Paris n ...
. Throughout his life, Cobb displayed an understanding of the country and its people that seemed almost uncanny for a non-native: in the words of fellow historian
Guy Chapman Major Guy Patterson Chapman (September 1889 – June 1972) was an English historian and author. He served in the British army in both world wars. Early life and education Chapman was educated at Westminster School, Christ Church, Oxford and the ...
, "Few can enjoy the felicity of Mr Richard Cobb, of becoming so soaked in a society not his by birth that he moves without needing to look where he is placing his feet among its nuances, its customs, its silences."


Writing and "history from below"

Cobb's published work mostly consists of collections of historical essays, of which the most celebrated is ''The Police and the People: French popular protest, 1789–1820'', first published in 1970. Almost all his early historical works were written in French. Like Soboul and Rudé (and another friend, the older historian
Georges Lefebvre Georges Lefebvre (; 6 August 1874 – 28 August 1959) was a French historian, best known for his work on the French Revolution and peasant life. He is considered one of the pioneers of " history from below". He coined the phrase the ...
), Cobb is counted among the progenitors of the " history from below" school of historical analysis. He wrote with a general sense of agreement toward their
Marxist historiography Marxist historiography, or historical materialist historiography, is an influential school of historiography. The chief tenets of Marxist historiography include the centrality of social class, social relations of production in class-divided soci ...
, but Cobb's personal approach always avoided the doctrinaire presumptions common to his French colleagues. Cobb himself fully rejected any identification with Marxist ideology. While the Marxist writers were more focused on historical movements and trends, Cobb's own vision was more tightly framed on individuals and their unique contributions. Even more importantly, those individuals who captured his attention were not the usual famous names – his favoured subjects were either
Everyman The everyman is a stock character of fiction. An ordinary and humble character, the everyman is generally a protagonist whose benign conduct fosters the audience's identification with them. Origin The term ''everyman'' was used as early as ...
figures or obscure persons of unique depth. Cobb had "an intense identification with the people who experience rather than make history." In his books and essays, Cobb wove compelling stories from raw data: "His approach is that of the novelist or Impressionist painter, communicating, always with compassion and a total absence of solemnity, what history did to ordinary people and how they managed to survive it."


''The People's Armies''

Though his published works are mostly essay collections, Cobb's most renowned work is a unified multi-volume analysis – the massive and intricate ''Les Armées Révolutionnaires'', first published in France in 1961. Released in English as ''The People's Armies'' in 1987, the book offers a social and political examination of the armed civilian ''révolutionnaires'', including the ''
sans-culottes The (, 'without breeches') were the common people of the lower classes in late 18th-century France, a great many of whom became radical and militant partisans of the French Revolution in response to their poor quality of life under the . T ...
'', the ''fédérés'' and numerous other paramilitaries and irregulars. In particular, it chronicles their experiences under the Reign of Terror in what is widely regarded as a "masterly account". Part of what separates Cobb from Soboul, Rudé, and other traditional Marxists is his view that the popular movement behind the Revolution was lukewarm and thinly spread. In ''The People's Armies'' he explains most thoroughly his view that the actions and ultimate course of the Revolution were not necessarily representative of "the people's will", but rather were inserted in history by a relatively small pageant of militant factions and outsized personalities. Cobb's approach has been described as a combination of "mistrust of facile generalization and an enthusiastic appreciation for the colorful tapestry of individual actions that make up past events."


Other writing

A 1969 collection of Cobb's essays on France and French life, ''A Second Identity'', brought his writing to a popular audience for the first time. In its wide-angle view, the book poignantly intertwines many of Cobb's own personal experiences with those of forgotten participants in historic events. This was followed by more academic works in the 1970s, including ''Death in Paris'' (1978), which examines the Revolutionary experience through data mined from hundreds of official death records. This scholarly work earned the
Wolfson History Prize The Wolfson History Prizes are literary awards given annually in the United Kingdom to promote and encourage standards of excellence in the writing of history for the general public. Prizes are given annually for two or three exceptional works ...
for Cobb in 1979. In later years, Cobb published several volumes of memoirs and observational essays, including a fond account of his childhood in 1920s-era
Tunbridge Wells Royal Tunbridge Wells is a town in Kent, England, southeast of central London. It lies close to the border with East Sussex on the northern edge of the High Weald, whose sandstone geology is exemplified by the rock formation High Rocks. T ...
, ''Still Life'' (1983), which won the J. R. Ackerley Prize for Autobiography. This was followed by ''People and Places'' and ''A Classical Education'', both published in 1985; and ''Something To Hold on To'' (1988), in which Cobb recalls his grandparents and other relatives in a highly personalised form of "history from below". Cobb made his closest venture to a strict linear narrative in ''A Classical Education''. Drawn from memories of his school years, the book tells the story of classmate Edward Ball who, at the age of twenty, was convicted of murdering his own mother. After serving fourteen years in the Central Criminal Lunatic Asylum in Dublin, Ball went to Paris to seek out Cobb. He confessed his guilt to his old friend, but explained his actions with deeper detail than he felt he gave in court. Sympathetically, Cobb recounts the "severe provocation" which drove Ball into "uncontrollable rage". Cobb's final book was the memoir ''End of the Line''. He completed the manuscript only two days before he died, and friends and family made the arrangements for its publication. New compilations of his various writing have been published since his death, including a collection of personal correspondence, ''My Dear Hugh: Letters from Richard Cobb to
Hugh Trevor-Roper Hugh Redwald Trevor-Roper, Baron Dacre of Glanton (15 January 1914 – 26 January 2003) was an English historian. He was Regius Professor of Modern History at the University of Oxford. Trevor-Roper was a polemicist and essayist on a range of ...
and others'' (2011).


Personal life

Cobb was married three times, and fathered three sons and one daughter. He was known as a wit, a prankster, and a generally irreverent character. He frequently spent long nights in spirited carousing, particularly during his stays in Paris, and throughout his life he retained a reputation for being "iconoclastic" and even "eccentric". The wry tone that Cobb so frequently employed in his scholarly writing was in regular service in his daily life. An inveterate joker, he would even deflate his own greatest passion with a pointed jab – a quote often attributed to him is, "Wonderful country, France ... pity about the French." His sardonic humour dovetailed with the traits of many of those minor characters in his histories for whom he had a clear admiration. After a fellow historian told him that he "wrote, spoke and thought like a Parisian street urchin", Cobb called it the greatest compliment he had ever received.


Death and legacy

For academic and literary achievement, Cobb was named as a commander (CBE) of the
Order of the British Empire The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding contributions to the arts and sciences, work with charitable and welfare organisations, and public service outside the civil service. It was established o ...
in 1978. Seven years later, he was similarly celebrated in France by the award of membership in the ''
Legion d'Honneur The National Order of the Legion of Honour (french: Ordre national de la Légion d'honneur), formerly the Royal Order of the Legion of Honour ('), is the highest French order of merit, both military and civil. Established in 1802 by Napoleon B ...
''. Cobb died at his home in
Abingdon, Oxfordshire Abingdon-on-Thames ( ), commonly known as Abingdon, is a historic market town and civil parish in the ceremonial county of Oxfordshire, England, on the River Thames. Historically the county town of Berkshire, since 1974 Abingdon has been admin ...
, on 15 January 1996 at the age of 78. He had four children and, at the time of his death, was married to his third wife, Margaret. In addition to Soboul and Rudé, Cobb influenced many other scholars including his Oxford successor Robert Gildea and the historians
Colin Lucas Sir Colin Renshaw Lucas, (born 25 August 1940) is a British historian and university administrator. From 1997 to 2004, he was the Vice-Chancellor of Oxford University. In May 2006, he was appointed Chair of the Board of the British Library for ...
,
Paul Jankowski Paul Jankowski (born July 8, 1950) is an American historian and the Raymond Ginger Professor of History Emeritus at Brandeis University. Raised in Europe and the United States, Jankowski attended Balliol College, Oxford for both his undergraduat ...
, and
Simon Schama Sir Simon Michael Schama (; born 13 February 1945) is an English historian specialising in art history, Dutch history, Jewish history, and French history. He is a University Professor of History and Art History at Columbia University. He fi ...
. He is not, however, without detractors. Cobb's works have been derided by some scholars as misanthropic, an application of Modern Age cynicism to eighteenth-century events. David A. Bell wrote of Cobb: "Because his sympathetic insight did not extend from the monsters and opportunists to the true believers, he ended up, for all the richness of his work, presenting only one side of the Revolution. He even made it somewhat difficult to understand why a revolution happened in the first place." Though controversial, Cobb is generally considered to be a writer of "formidable historical erudition", and his works offer a similar appeal to students of other disciplines such as psychology, sociology, and literature. As historian
Robert Darnton Robert Choate Darnton (born May 10, 1939) is an American cultural historian and academic librarian who specializes in 18th-century France. He was director of the Harvard University Library from 2007 to 2016. Life Darnton was born in New York ...
explains, Cobb's lushly detailed works are suffused with "a vision of the human condition that transcends the conventional limits of history writing."


Works

;Historical works
''The People's Armies''
(1961; first English edition, 1987)
''Terreur et subsistances, 1783–1795''
(1965)
''A Second Identity: Essays on France and French history''
(1969)
''The Police and the People: French popular protest, 1789–1820''
(1970)
''Reactions to the French Revolution''
(1972)
''Paris and its Provinces, 1792–1802''
(1975)
''A Sense of Place''
(1975)
''Raymond Queneau''
(1976)
''Tour De France''
(1976)
''Death in Paris: The Records of the Basse-Geole de la Seine, October 1795 – September 1801''
(1978)
''The Streets of Paris''
(1979)
''Promenades: A historian's appreciation of modern French literature''
(1980)
''French and Germans, Germans and French. A personal interpretation of France under two occupations, 1914–1918/1940–1944''
(1983)
''The French Revolution: Voices From a Momentous Epoch, 1789–1795''
(with Colin Jones; 1988) ;Autobiographical works
''Still Life: Sketches from a Tunbridge Wells childhood''
(1983)
''People and Places''
(1985)
''A Classical Education''
(1985)
To Hold On To: Autobiographical sketches''
(1988) ;Posthumous publications
''The End of the Line: A Memoir''
(1997)
''Paris and Elsewhere: Selected writings''
(1998)
''The French and Their Revolution: Selected writings''
(1999)
''Marseille''
(2001)
''My Dear Hugh: Letters from Richard Cobb to Hugh Trevor-Roper and others''
(2011) A trove of Cobb's extant papers and correspondence (1941–1997) is maintained at the
Merton College Library Merton College Library (in Merton College, Oxford) is one of the earliest libraries in England and the oldest academic library in the world still in continuous daily use. The library is located in several parts of the college, and houses a pric ...
in Oxford.


References


External links


Portraits of Richard Charles Cobb
at the National Portrait Gallery, London {{DEFAULTSORT:Cobb, Richard 1917 births 1996 deaths 20th-century British historians Alumni of Merton College, Oxford Chevaliers of the Légion d'honneur Commanders of the Order of the British Empire Historians of France Historians of the French Revolution Independent scholars People educated at Shrewsbury School People from Frinton-on-Sea British Army soldiers British Army personnel of World War II Military personnel from Essex