Christopher Hill (historian)

Lore & Background

Christopher Hill was born in York to a solicitor father and a devout Methodist family. He was influenced by Methodist preacher Theophilus Stevens Gregory, to whom he later dedicated Intellectual Origins of the English Revolution. He attended St Peter's School, York, and at age 16 sat the entrance exam for Balliol College, Oxford, where his tutors offered him a place to prevent him from going to Cambridge. In 1931 he took a prolonged holiday in Freiburg, Germany, witnessing the rise of the Nazi Party, which he said radicalised his politics. He matriculated at Balliol in 1931, won the Lothian Prize in 1932, and graduated with a first-class BA in modern history in 1934. While at Balliol he became a committed Marxist and joined the Communist Party of Great Britain in 1934. After graduating he became a Fellow of All Souls College, and in 1935 undertook a ten-month trip to Moscow, where he became fluent in Russian and studied Soviet historical scholarship.

After returning to England in 1936, Hill worked as an assistant lecturer at the University College of South Wales and Monmouthshire in Cardiff. He attempted to join the International Brigade for the Spanish Civil War but was rejected; instead he helped Basque refugees. In 1938 he returned to Balliol as a Fellow and tutor in history. During the Second World War he served in the British Army, initially as a private in the Field Security Police, then as a second lieutenant in the Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry, and later in the Intelligence Corps. He was seconded to the Foreign Office from 1943 until the war ended. After the war he returned to Oxford, and in 1946 helped form the Communist Party Historians Group. In 1949 he was turned down for a chair at Keele University because of his Communist Party affiliations. In 1952 he helped create the journal Past and Present. He left the Communist Party in spring 1957 after his report to the party congress was rejected, having become discontented with the lack of democracy in the party, though he stayed after the 1956 Soviet invasion of Hungary. His academic career rose after 1956; his first academic book, Economic Problems of the Church from Archbishop Whitgift to the Long Parliament, appeared in 1956. In 1965 he was elected Master of Balliol College, a post he held until 1978. He then took a two-year full-time appointment at the Open University and continued to lecture from his home at Sibford Ferris, Oxfordshire.

Reader's Guide

Christopher Hill's significance lies in his Marxist reinterpretation of 17th-century English history, particularly the English Revolution. His works, such as Puritanism and Revolution (1958), Intellectual Origins of the English Revolution (1965), and The World Turned Upside Down (1972), emphasised the role of radical ideas and social movements. He helped found the Communist Party Historians Group and the journal Past and Present, which shaped historical debate. Hill's legacy includes influencing a generation of historians, including his student Brian Manning. He was also the subject of espionage allegations, which were defended by fellow academics and not supported by declassified MI5 documents. His later years were marked by Alzheimer's disease, and he died in a nursing home in 2003.

Did You Know?

• Hill was offered a place at Balliol College at age 16 to prevent him from going to Cambridge.
• He witnessed the rise of the Nazi Party during a 1931 holiday in Freiburg, Germany.
• He attempted to join the International Brigade for the Spanish Civil War but was rejected.
• MI5 spied on Hill for decades but found no evidence he was a spy for the Soviet Union.

Notable Quotes (Wikiquote)

"Only very slowly and late have men come to realize that unless freedom is universal it is only extended privilege." — Christopher Hill (historian) "Just as Oliver Cromwell aimed to bring about the kingdom of God on earth and founded the British Empire, so Bunyan wanted the millennium and got the novel." — Christopher Hill (historian)