Charles Warren Hollister (November 2, 1930 – September 14, 1997) was an American author and historian. He was one of the founding members of the

University of California Santa Barbara The University of California, Santa Barbara (UC Santa Barbara or UCSB) is a public land-grant research university in Santa Barbara County, California, United States. Tracing its roots back to 1891 as an independent teachers college, UCSB joined ...

history department. He specialized in English medieval history, especially studies that emphasized the interrelationship of England within the Anglo-Norman realm and the development of administrative kingship. His colleague

Jeffrey Burton Russell Jeffrey Burton Russell (1 August 1934 – 12 April 2023) was an American historian of medieval Europe and religious studies scholar. Early life Russell received his undergraduate degree from the University of California, Berkeley in 1955 and his ...

called Hollister "one of the best medieval generalists in the world."

Biography

Hollister was born in

Los Angeles Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...

, California, the son of Nathan and Carrie (Cushman) Hollister. He graduated with honors from

Harvard University Harvard University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the History of the Puritans in North America, Puritan clergyma ...

in 1951, served in the

United States Air Force The United States Air Force (USAF) is the Air force, air service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is one of the six United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. Tracing its ori ...

during the

Korean War The Korean War (25 June 1950 – 27 July 1953) was an armed conflict on the Korean Peninsula fought between North Korea (Democratic People's Republic of Korea; DPRK) and South Korea (Republic of Korea; ROK) and their allies. North Korea was s ...

, and received his Ph.D. from

UCLA The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California, United States. Its academic roots were established in 1881 as a normal school then known as the southern branch of the C ...

in 1958. Hollister spent his academic career at the

University of California, Santa Barbara The University of California, Santa Barbara (UC Santa Barbara or UCSB) is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Santa Barbara County, California, United States. Tracing its roots back to 1891 as an ...

, officially retiring in 1994. During his tenure the History Department at the University of California, Santa Barbara, expanded massively, with the hire of scholars such as Frank J. Frost, Joachim Remak, Leonard Marsak, and Alfred Gollin. He was elected as a fellow of the

Medieval Academy of America The Medieval Academy of America (MAA; spelled Mediaeval until ) is the largest organization in the United States promoting the field of medieval studies. It was founded in 1925 and is based in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The academy publishes the q ...

in 1981 and was also a fellow of the

Royal Historical Society The Royal Historical Society (RHS), founded in 1868, is a learned society of the United Kingdom which advances scholarly studies of history. Origins The society was founded and received its royal charter in 1868. Until 1872 it was known as the H ...

and the Medieval Academy of Ireland. In May 1982, Hollister and his graduate students founded the Charles Homer Haskins Society, dedicated to the study of

Viking Vikings were seafaring people originally from Scandinavia (present-day Denmark, Norway, and Sweden), who from the late 8th to the late 11th centuries raided, pirated, traded, and settled throughout parts of Europe.Roesdahl, pp. 9� ...

Anglo-Saxon The Anglo-Saxons, in some contexts simply called Saxons or the English, were a Cultural identity, cultural group who spoke Old English and inhabited much of what is now England and south-eastern Scotland in the Early Middle Ages. They traced t ...

, Anglo- Norman, and early Angevin history. Hollister's research centered on the career of

Henry I of England Henry I ( – 1 December 1135), also known as Henry Beauclerc, was King of England from 1100 to his death in 1135. He was the fourth son of William the Conqueror and was educated in Latin and the liberal arts. On William's death in 1087, Henr ...

. However, his biography of that monarch was delayed by the loss of the manuscript, note cards and research library in the Santa Barbara wildfire of 1990.Russell, "Foreword". Hollister's Henry I biography was incomplete at the time of his death, but his doctoral student, Amanda Clark Frost, finished and published it with the

Yale University Press Yale University Press is the university press of Yale University. It was founded in 1908 by George Parmly Day and Clarence Day, grandsons of Benjamin Day, and became a department of Yale University in 1961, but it remains financially and ope ...

in 2001.

Publications

* "King John and the Historians", ''Journal of British Studies'' 1#1 (1961), pp. 1–1
online
* ''Anglo-Saxon Military Institutions on the Eve of the Norman Conquest'', 1962 (Triennial Book Prize of the Conference on British Studies) * ''Medieval Europe: A Short History'', 1964 * ''The Military Organization of Norman England'', 1965 * ''A History of England, Volume I: The Making of England, 55 B.C.–1399'', 1966 * ''Roots of the Western Tradition: A Short History of the Ancient World'', 1966 * (With John L. Stipp and Alan Dirrum) ''The Rise and Development of Western Civilization'', 1967 * (Editor) ''The Impact of the Norman Conquest'', 1969 * (With Judith Pike) ''The Moons of Meer'' (juvenile fantasy), 1969 * ''Odysseus to Columbus: A Synopsis of Classical and Medieval History'', 1974 * ''Monarchy, Magnates and Institutions in the Anglo-Norman World'', 1986 * (With J. Sears McGee and Gale Stokes) ''The West Transformed: A History of Western Civilization'', 2000 * ''Henry I'' (edited and completed by Amanda Clark Frost), 2001

References

External links

C. Warren Hollister, History: Santa Barbara
, ''1997, University of California: In Memoriam.'' *"C(harles) Warren Hollister", ''Contemporary Authors Online'', Gale, 2008. Reproduced in Biography Resource Center. Farmington Hills, Mich.: Gale, 2008. {{DEFAULTSORT:Hollister, C. Warren 1930 births 1997 deaths American medievalists Harvard University alumni University of California, Los Angeles alumni 20th-century American historians 20th-century American male writers Fellows of the Medieval Academy of America Fellows of the Royal Historical Society American male non-fiction writers University of California, Santa Barbara faculty