Donald Read

Donald Read (31 July 1930 – 1 October 2018) was a British historian.^[1] He was emeritus Professor of Modern English History at the University of Kent and in 1988 was appointed to write the authorised history of Reuters.^[2] Read died in 2018 at the age of 88 in Blackpool.^[3]

Education

• Manchester, Green End, elementary schools (1934–41); William Hulme's Grammar School, Manchester (1941–9); University College, Oxford (1949–55).

Career

• Research Studentship in Arts, University College, Hull (1954–5); Knoop Research Fellowship in Economic History, University of Sheffield (1955–6); assistant lecturer (1956), lecturer (1958) in modern history, University of Leeds (1956–65); senior lecturer (1965), reader (1969), Professor of Modern English History (1974), University of Kent (1965–90); Emeritus Professor (1990–2018).
• National President of the Historical Association (1985–8); company historian at Reuters, London (1988–2001).

Books

• Peterloo: The Massacre and its Background (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1958, 1973).
• Press and People 1790–1850: Opinion in Three English Cities (London: Arnold, 1961, 1993).
• [with E.H.L. Glasgow] Feargus O'Connor: Irishman and Chartist (London: Arnold, 1961).
• The English Provinces, 1760-1960: A Study in Influence (London: Arnold, 1964).
• Cobden and Bright: A Victorian Political Partnership (London: Arnold, 1967).
• Edwardian England 1901-15: Society and Politics (London: Harrap, 1972).
• [ed.] Documents from Edwardian England, 1901-1915 (London: Harrap, 1973).
• England 1868-1914 (London: Longman, 1979, revised 1994 as The Age of Urban Democracy).
• [ed.] Edwardian England (London: Croom Helm, with the Historical Association, 1982).
• Peel and the Victorians (Oxford: Blackwell, 1987).
• The Power of News: The History of Reuters (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1992, 2nd ed. 1999).
• A Manchester Boyhood in the Thirties and Forties: Growing up in War and Peace (Lampeter: Edwin Mellen Press, 2003).
• All You Need is Love: A Campus Tale (Sussex: Book Guild, 2010).
• Clever By Half: Learning and Loving in a Fifties University (Sussex: Book Guild, 2012).
• Never Trust Professors: Life and Death on Campus (Sussex: Book Guild, 2016).

Articles

This list excludes numerous book reviews, which appeared especially in Northern History from its start in 1965

• "The Social and Economic Background to Peterloo" (Trans. Lancs. & Ches. Antiq. Soc., LXIV (1954), pp. 1–18 (1954).
• "Manchester News-Letter: A Discovery at Oxford" (Manchester Review, 8 (1957), pp. 1–5) (reprinted from Manchester Guardian, 31 August 1956).
• "Lancashire's Hampden Clubs: A Spy's Narrative" (Manchester Review, 8 (1957), pp. 83–7) (revised from Manchester Guardian, 2 October 1956).
• "John Harland: The Father of Provincial Reporting" (Manchester Review, 8 (1958), pp. 205–12) (revised from Manchester Guardian, 4 September 1957).
• "North of England Newspapers and their Value to Historians" (Proc. Leeds Phil. & Lit. Soc., VIII (1957), pp. 200–15).
• "Robert Owen, 1771-1858: From Manchester to Utopia" (Manchester Review, 8 (1959), pp. 317–20) (reprinted from Manchester Guardian, 17 November 1958).
• "Reform Newspapers and Northern Opinion, c.1800-c.1848" (Proc.Leeds Phil. & Lit. Soc., VIII (1959), pp. 301–14).
• "Feargus O'Connor: Irishman and Chartist" (History Today, XI (1961), pp. 165–74).
• "The Use of Local History: The Local History of Modern Times" (Amateur Historian, 6 no.4 (1964), pp. 121–24).
• "Travelling the North" (Northern History, III (1968), pp. 219–22).
• "Introduction" to the Third Edition of Archibald Prentice, Historical Sketches and Personal Recollections of Manchester (Cass, 1970) (pp.v-xvii)
• "The New Cities" (in History of the English Speaking Peoples (Purnell, 1971), pp. 3388–95).
• "History: Political and Diplomatic" (in C.B. Cox & A.E. Dyson [eds.] The Twentieth Century Mind, I: 1900-1918 (OUP, 1972), pp. 1–50).
• "Edwardian England" (Historical Association Pamphlet G79 (1972) 56pp.).
• "Bright, John" (in Encyclopaedia Britannica, 15th ed. (1974), vol.2, pp. 517–18).
• "Introduction: Crisis Age or Golden Age" 'in D. Read [ed.], Edwardian England (Croom Helm, 1982), pp. 14–39).
• "President's Page" (in The Historian [Historical Association], nos.6–17 (1985–88)).
• "Sir Roderick Jones and Reuters: Rise and Fall of a News Emperor" (in D. Fraser [ed.], Cities, Class and Communications, Essays in Honour of Asa Briggs (Harvester, 1990), pp. 175–99).
• "War News from Reuters: Victorian and Edwardian Reporting" (Despatches, 4 (1993), pp. 72–85).
• "Reuters: News Agency of the British Empire" (Contemporary Record, 8 (1994), pp. 195–212).
• "Truth in News: Reuters and the Manchester Guardian, 1858-1964" (Northern History, 31 (1995), pp. 281–97).
• "Reuters and South Africa: South Africa is a country of monopolies" (South African Journal of Economic History, 11 (1996), pp. 104–43).
• "Sir Christopher Chancellor" (Dictionary of National Biography, 1986-1990 (OUP, 1996), pp. 65–6).
• "The Local History Committee: A Very Personal Retrospect" (The Historian [Historical Association], no.54 (1997), pp. 16–17).
• "The Impact of Electric News 1846-1914: The Role of Reuters" (in F.A.J.L. James [ed.], Semaphores to Short Waves (RSA, 1998), pp. 121–35).
• "Obituary, Gerald Long, 1923-1998" (The Independent, 14 November 1998).
• "The Relationship of Reuters and other News Agencies with the British Press, 1858-1984: Service at Cost or Business for Profit?" (in P. Caterall et al. [eds.], Northcliffe's Legacy, Aspects of the British Popular Press, 1896-1996 (Macmillan, 2000), pp. 149–68).
• "Don't Blame the Messengers: News Agencies Past and Present" (The Historian [Historical Association], no.69 (spring 2001), pp. 9–15).
• "A Parade of Past Presidents 1906–1982" (The Historian [Historical Association], no.91 (autumn 2006), pp. 10–23).
• "New Universities of the Sixties, One Professor’s Recollections: Glad Confident Morning and After" (The Historian [Historical Association], no.114 (summer 2012), pp. 28–31).
• "Obituary, Asa Briggs, 1921-2016" (The Historian [Historical Association], no.129 (spring 2016), p. 37).

Notes