Alun Howkins (8 August 1947 – 12 July 2018) was an English social historian, specialising in the history of English rural society. Regarded as a leading historian of the English countryside and its working class, Howkins was a professor of history at the University of Sussex and co-founder of the journal '' Rural History''.

Early life

Background

Howkins was born in Bicester on 8 August 1947 into a

working-class The working class (or labouring class) comprises those engaged in manual-labour occupations or industrial work, who are remunerated via waged or salaried contracts. Working-class occupations (see also " Designation of workers by collar colou ...

family; his father, a Communist Party supporter, was a mechanic but a head injury sustained in World War II led him to take up less skilled worked as a store man later in life; Howkins' mother worked night-shifts in a hospital."Professor Alun Howkins", '' The Daily Telegraph'', 11 August 2018, p. 27. After failing the

eleven-plus examination The eleven-plus (11+) is a standardized examination administered to some students in England and Northern Ireland in their last year of primary education, which governs admission to grammar schools and other secondary schools which use academic ...

, he attended Bicester Highfield Secondary Modern School; he later moved to a technical college in Banbury, but after he was expelled aged 15 he became an apprentice

farm labourer A farmworker, farmhand or agricultural worker is someone employed for labor in agriculture. In labor law, the term "farmworker" is sometimes used more narrowly, applying only to a hired worker involved in agricultural production, including harv ...

Work, trade unionism and Ruskin College

Within a year and a half he had taken up a job at the ordnance depot in Bicester and in 1964 joined Pergamon Press as a

copyeditor Copy editing (also known as copyediting and manuscript editing) is the process of revising written material ( copy) to improve readability and fitness, as well as ensuring that text is free of grammatical and factual errors. '' The Chicago Manual ...

. Howkins had become involved with trade unionism while working as a farm labourer and at Pergamon he established a branch of the Clerical and Administrative Workers Union. He was introduced to the world of folk music at the same time, and through that the Communist Party. He was fired from his job at Pergamon in 1966 and worked for Blackwell's in Oxford for two years before enrolling at

Ruskin College Ruskin College, originally known as Ruskin Hall, Oxford, is an independent educational institution in Oxford, England. It is not a college of Oxford University. It is named after the essayist, art and social critic John Ruskin (1819–1900) an ...

in Oxford, where he was taught by Raphael Samuel and became heavily involved in the History Workshop Movement.

Academic career

Howkins spent two years at Ruskin College,"Notes on the Editors"
'' History Workshop Journal'', vol. 1 (1977), p. 284. before completing an undergraduate degree at the University of Oxford; history and English were his chosen subjects. In 1973, he moved to the University of Essex to begin doctoral studies; three years later, he started working at the University of Sussex,"Obituary: Professor Alun Howkins (1947–2018)"
'' University of Sussex'', 26 July 2018. Retrieved 22 November 2018. and only picked up his

PhD PHD or PhD may refer to: * Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), an academic qualification Entertainment * '' PhD: Phantasy Degree'', a Korean comic series * ''Piled Higher and Deeper'', a web comic * Ph.D. (band), a 1980s British group ** Ph.D. (Ph.D. albu ...

studies again in the early 1980s, largely re-writing his thesis; the PhD was awarded by Essex in 1982 for "'The great momentous time': Radicalism and the Norfolk farm labourer 1872–1923"."'The great momentous time': Radicalism and the Norfolk farm labourer 1872–1923"
''EThOS'' (British Library). Retrieved 22 November 2018. At Sussex, he became a professor of history and director of the School of Humanities' Graduate Centre before retiring in 2010 (whereupon he was appointed an emeritus professor). Outside of university, Howkins was co-founder of the journal '' Rural History'', was an inaugural editor of the '' History Workshop Journal'', and wrote and presented the 1999 BBC television series '' Fruitful Earth'', alongside the series '' Edwardian Farm'' and '' Mud, Sweat and Tractors: The Story of Agriculture''. Howkins' interest in rural history reflected his political views. He supported trade union activism and the Labour Party. He was also a fond follower of folk music, performing in some of his lectures and classes, as well as outside university in several bands. In retirement, he moved to Norfolk. He died, aged 70, on 12 July 2018.

Research

When he died, '' The Daily Telegraph'' called Howkins a "leading" historian of English rural society, especially farm labourers, the rural poor and rural folklore of the 19th and early 20th centuries. Influenced by History Workshop, Howkins' research emphasised the long history of

class conflict Class conflict, also referred to as class struggle and class warfare, is the political tension and economic antagonism that exists in society because of socio-economic competition among the social classes or between rich and poor. The forms ...

in the countryside and he explored the emergence of a distinctive class culture among the rural working class. But he was also keen to demonstrate the changing nature of rural England, as it became a place of leisure in the 20th century, and as it was influenced by the

mechanisation of agriculture Mechanised agriculture or agricultural mechanization is the use of machinery and equipment, ranging from simple and basic hand tools to more sophisticated, motorized equipment and machinery, to perform agricultural operations. In modern times, po ...

and environmental concerns.

Books

* ''Poor Labouring Men: Rural Radicalism in Norfolk, 1872–1923'' (

Routledge & Kegan Paul Routledge () is a British multinational publisher. It was founded in 1836 by George Routledge, and specialises in providing academic books, journals and online resources in the fields of the humanities, behavioural science, education, law, and ...

, 1985). * ''Reshaping Rural England: A Social History, 1850–1925'' ( Harper Collins, 1991). * ''The Death of Rural England: A Social History of the Countryside since 1900'' ( Routledge, 2003).