Maurice John Cowling (September 6, 1926 – August 24, 2005) was a British historian and a Fellow of Peterhouse, Cambridge. He is noted for his high political way of writing history. This article is about the day of the year. ... 1926 (MCMXXVI) was a common year starting on Friday (link will take you to calendar). ... August 24 is the 236th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (237th in leap years), with 129 days remaining. ... 2005 (MMV) was a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar. ... For other senses of this word, see history (disambiguation). ... Full name Peterhouse Motto - Named after St Peter Previous names The Scholars of the Bishop of Ely St Peters College Established 1284 Sister College(s) Merton College Master The Lord Wilson of Tillyorn Location Trumpington Street Undergraduates 253 Postgraduates 125 Homepage Boatclub The chapel cloisters, through which Old Court...

Early life and professional career

Cowling was born in Norwood, South London to a lower middle-class family. His family then moved to Streatham where Cowling attended an LCC elementary school and from 1937 the Battersea Grammar School. When the Second World War started in 1939 the school moved to Worthing and then from 1940 to Hertford where Cowling attended sixth-form. Norwood is the name of several places around the world: In Australia: Norwood, South Australia, suburb of Adelaide Electoral district of Norwood, a state electoral district in South Australia. ... This article is about the British city. ... Streatham is a place in the London Borough of Lambeth. ... London County Council emblem is still seen today on buildings, especially housing, from that era London County Council (LCC) was the principal local government body for the County of London from 1889 until 1965, when it was replaced by the Greater London Council. ... 1937 (MCMXXXVII) was a common year starting on Friday (link will take you to calendar). ... Mushroom cloud from the nuclear explosion over Nagasaki rising 18 km into the air. ... 1939 (MCMXXXIX) was a common year starting on Sunday (link will take you to calendar). ... Map sources for Worthing at grid reference TQ1303 Worthing is the largest town and a local government district in West Sussex, England. ... 1940 (MCMXL) was a leap year starting on Monday (the link is to a full 1940 calendar). ... Hertford (Hartford or, in local pronunciation, /[h]ɑːʔֽfəd/) is the county town of Hertfordshire, England, and is in the East Hertfordshire district of that county. ...

Cowling won a scholarship to Jesus College, Cambridge in 1943. He took preliminary examinations in June 1944 but was called up for military service in September 1944, where he joined the Queen's Royal Regiment. In 1945, after training and serving in a holding battalion, he was sent to Bangalore as an officer-cadet. There are at least two instutions bearing the name Jesus College. ... 1943 (MCMXLIII) was a common year starting on Friday (the link is to a full 1943 calendar). ... 1944 (MCMXLIV) was a leap year starting on Saturday (the link is to a full 1944 calendar). ... 1944 (MCMXLIV) was a leap year starting on Saturday (the link is to a full 1944 calendar). ... 1945 (MCMXLV) was a common year starting on Monday (the link is to a full 1945 calendar). ... The Vidhana Soudha is the seat of Karnatakas Legislative assembly Bangalore (Kannada: ; (?) in Kannada and // in English) is the capital of the Indian state of Karnataka. ...

In 1946 Cowling was attached to the Kumaon regiment and the next year-and-a-half he travelled to Agra, Razmak on the North-West Frontier and Assam. As independence for India neared in 1947, Cowling was dispatched to Egypt as a camp adjutant to the British HQ there. Cowling was then promoted to captain in Libya. By the end of 1947 Cowling was finally demobilised and in 1948 he went back to Jesus College to complete his Historical Tripos, where he got a Double First. 1946 (MCMXLVI) was a common year starting on Tuesday. ... For other uses, see Agra (disambiguation). ... North-West Frontier Province (NWFP) is geographically the smallest of the four provinces of Pakistan. ... Assam (Assamese: অসম Ôxôm) is a northeastern state of India with its capital at Dispur. ... 1947 (MCMXLVII) was a common year starting on Wednesday (the link is to a full 1947 calendar). ... 1947 (MCMXLVII) was a common year starting on Wednesday (the link is to a full 1947 calendar). ... 1948 (MCMXLVIII) was a leap year starting on Thursday (the link is to a full 1948 calendar). ... A degree is any of a wide range of status levels conferred by institutions of higher education, such as universities, normally as the result of successfully completing a program of study. ...

In 1954 Cowling worked at the British Foreign Office for six months at the Jordan department and in early 1955, The Times gave him the job of foreign leader-writer which he held for three years. In 1957 Cowling was invited by the Director of the Conservative Political Centre to write a pamphlet on the Suez Crisis; it was never published, however, as the party wanted to move on from Suez as quickly as possible. He stood unsuccessfully for the parliamentary seat of Bassetlaw during the General Election of 1959. 1954 (MCMLIV) was a common year starting on Friday of the Gregorian calendar. ... 1955 (MCMLV) was a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar. ... The Times is a national newspaper published daily in the United Kingdom. ... 1957 (MCMLVII) was a common year starting on Tuesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... A pamphlet is an unbound booklet (that is, without a hard cover or binding). ... Combatants Israel, France, United Kingdom Egypt Commanders Moshe Dayan (CoS of the IDF) General Sir Charles Keightley (C-in-C), Vice-Admiral Pierre Barjot (Deputy) Gamal Abdel Nasser Strength 45,000 British, 34,000 French, 175,000 Israeli 300,000 Egyptians Casualties 189 Israelis KIA, unknown number WIA, 16 British... Bassetlaw is a constituency represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. ... This United Kingdom general election was held on October 8, 1959, and marked a third successive victory for the ruling Conservative party, led by Harold MacMillan. ...

In 1961 Cowling was elected a Fellow of Jesus College and Director of Studies in Economics, shortly before the History Faculty appointed him to an Assistant Lectureship. During six weeks of the summer of 1962 Cowling wrote Mill and Liberalism, which was published in 1963 and became one of his most contentious books. The book claimed Mill was not as libertarian as he was traditionally portrayed and that Mill resembled a 'moral totalitarian'. One reviewer, Dr. Roland Hall, called the book 'dangerous and unpleasant'. In 1963 he was elected a Fellow to Peterhouse, Cambridge where he advised his students to tackle liberals with "irony, geniality and malice". Cowling published his work on the 1867 Reform Act during its centenary and dedicated it to "the Prime Minister", Labour leader Harold Wilson. During the 1960s Cowling campaigned against a Sociology course to be introduced at Cambridge, regarding it as a 'vehicle for liberal dogma' [1]. In November 1966 Cowling was elected as a Conservative councillor on the Cambridgeshire and Isle of Ely County Council in a by-election, which he held until 1970 [2]. 1961 (MCMLXI) was a common year starting on Sunday (the link is to a full 1961 calendar). ... 1962 (MCMLXII) was a common year starting on Monday (the link is to a full 1962 calendar). ... 1963 (MCMLXIII) was a common year starting on Tuesday (the link is to a full 1963 calendar). ... See also Libertarianism and Libertarian Party Libertarian,is a term for person who has made a conscious and principled commitment, evidenced by a statement or Pledge, to forswear violating others rights and usually living in voluntary communities: thus in law no longer subject to government supervision. ... A moral is a one sentence remark made at the end of many childrens stories that expresses the intended meaning, or the moral message, of the tale. ... The concept of Totalitarianism is a typology or ideal-type used by some political scientists to encapsulate the characteristics of a number of twentieth century regimes that mobilized entire populations in support of the state or an ideology. ... The Reform Act 1867 (also known as the Second Reform Act) was a piece of British legislation that greatly increased the number of men who could vote in elections in the UK. In its final form, the Reform Act 1867 enfranchised all male householders and abolished compounding (the practice of... The Labour Party has since its formation in the early 20th century been the principal left wing political party in the United Kingdom (see British politics). ... James Harold Wilson, Baron Wilson of Rievaulx, KG, OBE, FRS, PC (11 March 1916 – 24 May 1995) was one of the most prominent and successful British politicians of the 20th Century. ... The 1960s decade refers to the years from 1960 to 1969, inclusive. ... Social interactions of people and their consequences are the subject of sociology studies. ... Look up November in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... 1966 (MCMLXVI) was a common year starting on Saturday (the link is to a full 1966 calendar). ... A councillor is a member of a council (such as a city council), particularly in the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia and other parts of the Commonwealth. ... 1970 (MCMLXX) was a common year starting on Thursday (the link is to a full 1970 calendar). ...

He was appointed the literary editor of The Spectator for a year (1970-1971) and in the early 1970s he wrote articles of a broadly Powellite nature arguing against the UK being a member of the EEC. In 1977 Margaret Thatcher visited the Cambridge Graduate Conservative Association of Peterhouse where she 'cut through the compact subtlety and 'rational pessimism' of [Cowling]' and sharply retorted: 'We don't want pessimists in our party' ^[1]. In 1978 he ceased to be Director of Studies in Peterhouse and in the same year he helped found the Salisbury Group, a group of conservative thinkers named, on Michael Oakeshott's advice, after the Prime Minister of the same name. Also in the same year Cowling published Conservative Essays where he said: The Spectator is a conservative British political magazine, established 1828, published weekly. ... 1971 (MCMLXXI) was a common year starting on Friday (the link is to a full 1971 calendar). ... The 1970s decade refers to the years from 1970 to 1979, inclusive. ... The Right Honourable John Enoch Powell, MBE (June 16, 1912 – February 8, 1998) was a right-wing British politician and Conservative Party MP between 1950 and February 1974, and an Ulster Unionist MP between October 1974 and 1987. ... The European Community (EC), most important of three European Communities, was originally founded on March 25, 1957 by the signing of the Treaty of Rome under the name of European Economic Community. ... For the album by Ash, see 1977 (album). ... Margaret Hilda Thatcher, Baroness Thatcher, LG, OM, PC, FRS (born 13 October 1925) was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1979 to 1990. ... 1978 (MCMLXXVIII) was a common year starting on Sunday (the link is to a full 1978 calendar). ... Michael Joseph Oakeshott (11 December 1901 - 19 December 1990) was an English philosopher with particular interests in political thought, the nature of history as a form of knowledge, the philosophies of education and religion, and aesthetics. ... The Most Honourable Robert Arthur Talbot Gascoyne-Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury, KG, GCVO, PC (3 February 1830–22 August 1903), known as Lord Robert Cecil before 1865 and as Viscount Cranborne from 1865 until 1868, was a British statesman and Prime Minister. ...

"If there is a class war - and there is - it is important that it should be handled with subtlety and skill. ... it is not freedom that Conservatives want; what they want is the sort of freedom that will maintain existing inequalities or restore lost ones ^[2]."

Cowling was 'instrumental' [3] in getting the historian Lord Dacre of Glanton from Oxford to become Master of Peterhouse from 1980 to 1987. In November 1989 Cowling published his essay on 'The Sources of the New Right' in Encounter which detailed the ideological roots of Thatcherism in Britain and became the Preface to the second edition of Mill and Liberalism in 1990. Hugh Redwald Trevor-Roper, Baron Dacre of Glanton (January 15, 1914 - January 26, 2003) was a notable historian of early modern Britain and Nazi Germany, who became infamous for authenticating the Hitler Diaries, which were later proved to be a hoax. ... The University of Oxford, located in the city of Oxford in England, is the oldest university in the English-speaking world. ... 1980 (MCMLXXX) was a leap year starting on Tuesday. ... 1987 (MCMLXXXVII) was a common year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Look up November in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... 1989 (MCMLXXXIX) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... For the British national anarchist group of this name, see New Right (UK) New Right is used in several countries as a descriptive term for various forms of conservatism that emerged in the mid- to late twentieth century. ... Thatcherism is the system of political thought attributed to the governments of Margaret Thatcher, British Prime Minister from 1979 to 1990. ...

Cowling retired from the History Faculty of Cambridge in 1988 and from his Fellowship of Peterhouse in 1993. In 1996 Cowling married George Gale's ex-wife and in 2005, aged 78, Cowling died after a long illness. 1988 (MCMLXXXVIII) was a leap year starting on Friday of the Gregorian calendar. ... 1993 (MCMXCIII) was a common year starting on Friday of the Gregorian calendar and marked the Beginning of the International Decade to Combat Racism and Racial Discrimination (1993-2003). ... 1996 (MCMXCVI) was a leap year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar, and was designated the International Year for the Eradication of Poverty. ... Marriage is a relationship that plays a key role in the definition of many families. ... George Gale was editor of the British political magazine The Spectator from 1970 to 1973. ... 2005 (MMV) was a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

Historical work

In Cowling's political history books he developed what became known as "high politics" and he was also the most prominent of the Peterhouse school of history. This meant political events were interpreted through the study of around 40 eminent persons such as politicians, civil servants and servicemen who played a role in government. Class struggle is a running theme throughout the three political books. In Cowling's The Impact of Hitler, for example, party conflict is to Cowling class conflict with the Labour party the party of socialism and the Conservatives the party of resistance to socialism whilst being dedicated to preserving the existing social order. The policy making process to Cowling is therefore heavily influenced by party politics. The Peterhouse school of history was named after the Cambridge college of the same name where the history taught concentrated on high politics. That is, the study of fifty or sixty politicians in conscious tension with one another, in the words of Maurice Cowling, the most prominent member of the... Socialism is a political philosophy advocating an economic system in which the means of production are owned and controlled collectively. ...

Cowling was an 'isolationist imperialist' ^[3] who argued that from Britain's point-of-view the Second World War had been a 'liberal war which had been entered into in a condition of moral indignation without the resources to fight it' and that it had been 'providential good fortune which had placed the burden of fighting on the Russians and the Americans' ^[4]. He was also critical of the war's outcome in the result of a Labour electoral landslide, a greatly expanded welfare state and the liquidation of the British Empire ^[5]. Isolationism is a diplomatic policy whereby a nation seeks to avoid alliances with other nations. ... Imperialism is the policy of extending the control or authority over foreign entities as a means of acquisition and/or maintenance of empires, either through direct territorial or through indirect methods of exerting control on the politics and/or economy of other countries. ... Mushroom cloud from the nuclear explosion over Nagasaki rising 18 km into the air. ... The Labour Party has since its formation in the early 20th century been the principal left wing political party in the United Kingdom (see British politics). ... The British general election of 1945 held on July 5th 1945 but not counted and declared until July 26, 1945 (due to the time it took to transport the votes of those serving overseas) was one of the most significant general elections of the 20th century. ... The Welfare State of the United Kingdom was the result of the William Beveridge Report in 1942, which identified five Giant Evils in society: squalor, ignorance, want, idleness and disease. ... The British Empire in 1897, marked in pink, the traditional colour for Imperial British dominions on maps. ...

Notes

• 1 Peter Ghosh, 'Towards the verdict of history: Mr Cowling's Doctrine (1992)', Public and Private Doctrine: Essays in British history presented to Maurice Cowling (CUP, 1993), p. 288.
• 2 Maurice Cowling, 'The Present Position', Conservative Essays (Cassell, 1978), p. 1, p. 9.
• 3 Maurice Cowling, Religion and Public Doctrine in Modern England: Volume I (CUP, 1980), p. 214.
• 4 Maurice Cowling, Mill and Liberalism: Second Edition (CUP, 1990), p. xv.
• 5 Maurice Cowling, The Impact of Hitler (Chicago, 1977), p. 391, p. 399.

Books

• The Nature and Limits of Political Science by Maurice Cowling (Cambridge, 1963)
• Mill and Liberalism by Maurice Cowling (Cambridge, 1963)
• 1867: Disraeli, Gladstone and Revolution. The Passing of the Second Reform Bill by Maurice Cowling (Cambridge, 1967)
• Selected Writings of John Stuart Mill edited by Maurice Cowling (New American Library, 1968)
• The Impact of Labour 1920-1924. The Beginning of Modern British Politics by Maurice Cowling (Cambridge, 1971)
• The Impact of Hitler. British Politics and British Policy 1933-40. by Maurice Cowling (Cambridge, 1975)
• Conservative Essays edited by Maurice Cowling (Cassell, 1978)
• Religion and Public Doctrine in Modern England Volume I by Maurice Cowling (Cambridge, 1980)
• Religion and Public Doctrine in Modern England. Volume II: Assaults by Maurice Cowling (Cambridge, 1985)
• Religion and Public Doctrine in Modern England. Volume III: Accommodations by Maurice Cowling (Cambridge, 2001)
• A Conservative Future by Maurice Cowling (Politeia, 1997)

• Public and Private Doctrine: Essays in British history presented to Maurice Cowling (Cambridge, 1993). Cowling's Festschrift.

In academia, a Festschrift is a book honouring a respected academic. ...

External links

• The Case Against Going to War
• The Times obituary
• The Daily Telegraph obituary
• The Independent obituary
• The Guardian obituary
• Prof. Michael Bentley Michael Bentley on Maurice Cowling (1926-2005), An appreciation and obituary by the author of Maurice Cowling's festschrift, Social Affairs Unit, August 2005
• Prof. Jeremy Black Jeremy Black on Maurice Cowling Social Affairs Unit Web Review, September 2005