The History of a History Man
Title Details

244 Pages

23.4 x 15.6 cm

28 colour, 38 b/w illus.

Series: Church of England Record Society

Imprint: Church of England Record Society

The History of a History Man

Or, the Twentieth Century Viewed from a Safe Distance. The Memoirs of Patrick Collinson

by Patrick Collinson

  • Description
  • Contents
  • Reviews
This elegantly written memoir not only demands the attention of those interested in the writing of history and the story of the universities, but also, in its evocation of a world now rapidly disappearing, it has much to offer anyone who wants to learn more about Britain in the twentieth century.

In 1988 Patrick Collinson was appointed Regius Professor of Modern History in the University of Cambridge; on his retirement in 1996, he was widely regarded as the most distinguished religious historian of his generation. An expert on the Reformation and post-Reformation period in England, he is probably best known for his work on the history of Puritanism.
The History of a History Man has much to tell about the development of the historical profession and the evolution of the universities in Britain in the second half of the twentieth century. Elegantly written and with an irreverent humour, it tells the story of a childhood in pre-War Britain dominated by an ardent evangelical religion, of evacuation during the Blitz, of national service during the Cold War, of undergraduate life at Cambridge in the 1950s, of teaching and travelling in the Sudan and Ethiopia while the British empire collapsed,and of expatriate life in Australia during the 1970s, before returning to Britain in time for the first great funding crisis of post-war higher education.
The book not only demands the attention of those interested in the writing of history and the story of the universities, but also, in its evocation of a world that is now rapidly disappearing, it has much to offer anyone who wants to learn more about Britain in the twentieth century.

PATRICK COLLINSON was Regius Professor of Modern History in the University of Cambridge from 1988 to 1996, and he is a Fellow of Trinity College. He is the author of many studies of the Reformation and of post-Reformation religion, politics and society. Patrick Collinson was the founding President of the Church of England Record Society.
Why?
My Mother
My Father
A Strange Little Boy
King's School Ely
History
My Part in The Cold War
Pembroke
Puritanism
First Taste of the Waters of the Nile
The Sudan Years and Ethiopia
The Most Beautiful Place on Earth
It was all down to the Khartoum Caledonian Society
The Sudan: Looking Back in Anger and Regret
King's College London and Honor Oak, 1961-1969
Sydney
Canterbury and Sheffield
Trinity
The Glacis of Retirement
"[A] humane and wonderfully written autobiography." JOURNAL OF HISTORICAL BIOGRAPHY
"A humane and wonderfully written autobiography." JOURNAL OF HISTORICAL BIOGRAPHY
"A revealing read, almost too revealing of a humble and very human scholar." CONGREGATIONAL HISTORY SOCIETY MAGAZINE
"This memoir, covering the whole arc of a life, makes fascinating reading [and] leaves an abiding impression of a remarkably kind and generous man. TLS Books of the Year 2011" .
"Informative, engaging and highly recommended reading." MIDWEST BOOK REVIEW

Hardcover

9781843836278

March 2011

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Title Details

244 Pages

2.34 x 1.56 cm

28 colour, 38 b/w illus.

Series: Church of England Record Society

Imprint: Church of England Record Society