James Joll

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James Joll

James Bysse Joll FBA (21 June 1918 – 12 July 1994) was a British historian and university lecturer whose works included The Origins of the First World War and Europe Since 1870. He also wrote on the history of anarchism and socialism.

Life and career

Joll was born on 21 June 1918 in Bristol[1] and was educated at Winchester, the University of Bordeaux and New College, Oxford. He left to join the British Army in 1940, eventually serving in the Special Operations Executive. He returned to Oxford after World War II, completed his studies, and became an instructor there. He was a Fellow and Tutor in Politics from 1947 until 1950. He then transferred to St Antony's College. In 1955 he met the painter and art historian John Golding;[2] the two men formed a long relationship which lasted until Joll's death.[3]

While at Oxford, Joll wrote a book on the Second International (1955) and a book on Léon Blum, Walther Rathenau, and Filippo Tommaso Marinetti, called Intellectuals in Politics (1960). In 1964 he published The Anarchists, which showed his intertwined interests in the culture, events, political philosophy, and individual personalities forming the history of a Leftist movement.

In 1967 Joll left St Antony's, Oxford to teach at the

Courtauld Institute and former teacher, after Blunt's exposure as a former Soviet spy, for which Joll was attacked in the press.[2]

Following his retirement in 1981, he became

.

Joll died 12 July 1994 from the cancer of the larynx.[1] In his obituary notice for The Independent newspaper, the historian Sir Michael Howard, noted:

Joll's real focus was the history of ideas broadly conceived – philosophical, ethical and aesthetic, as well as political – and the interface between this and the political history of Europe in the 19th and 20th centuries. He firmly believed that history was made by people rather than by dispassionate forces. But he also believed that one could not understand why people act as they do unless one also understands the influences that moulded their minds.[2]

Works

  • LCCN 78390757
    .
  • Intellectuals in politics: Three biographical essays. London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson. 1960. .
  • .
  • Gramsci. London: Fontana Modern Masters. 1977.
  • LCCN 80010503
    .
  • Antonio Gramsci. New York: Viking Press. 1977.
    LCCN 78064513
    .
  • The origins of the First World War (2nd ed.). London, New York: Longman. 1992.
    LCCN 91023178
    .
  • Europe since 1870: An international history (3rd ed.). Middlesex, England, New York: Penguin. 1983. .

References

Notes

  1. ^ a b c Pace, Eric (18 July 1994). "James Joll, 76, British Historian; Studied Origins of World War I". The New York Times. Retrieved 9 March 2012. A former student of his, Charles S. Maier, the Krupp Professor of European Studies at Harvard, observed yesterday that Professor Joll's last book, "The Origins of the First World War" (1984, Longman) is assigned by teachers to be read by "virtually every student who studies that event."
  2. ^ a b c Howard, Michael (18 July 1994). "Obituary: Professor James Joll". The Independent. London. Retrieved 7 March 2012.
  3. ^ McNay, Michael (12 April 2012). "Obituary: John Golding". The Guardian. Retrieved 12 April 2012.

Bibliography