Sir Bernard Rowland Crick (16 December 1929 – 19 December 2008) was a British political theorist and

democratic socialist Democratic socialism is a left-wing economic and political philosophy that supports political democracy and some form of a socially owned economy, with a particular emphasis on economic democracy, workplace democracy, and workers' self-mana ...

whose views can be summarised as "politics is ethics done in public". He sought to arrive at a "politics of action", as opposed to a "politics of thought" or of ideology, and he held that He was a leading critic of behaviouralism. Crick is today popularly remembered for having written the first version of the controversial Life in the UK test, a requirement to obtain British citizenship but criticised since its inception for its factual errors and misrepresentations.

Career

Crick was born at 77, Circle Gardens, Merton, London, the son of Harry Edgar Crick (died 1968), an insurance official, and Florence Clara, née Cook (died 1987). He was educated at Whitgift School in Croydon.''Who's Who 2007'', London : A. & C. Black, 2007 : 519 He read Economics at

University College London University College London (Trade name, branded as UCL) is a Public university, public research university in London, England. It is a Member institutions of the University of London, member institution of the Federal university, federal Uni ...

, obtaining a Bachelor of Science degree, before transferring to the

London School of Economics The London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE), established in 1895, is a public research university in London, England, and a member institution of the University of London. The school specialises in the social sciences. Founded ...

for doctoral study. While working on his Ph.D.—published in 1958 as ''The American Science of Politics''—he was a Teaching Fellow at Harvard (1952–1954), Assistant Professor at McGill (1954–1955), and Visiting Fellow at Berkeley (1955–1956). Returning to the United Kingdom in 1956, he obtained his Ph.D. at the LSE and was appointed to an Assistant and later a Senior Lectureship, 1957–1965. During his period at the LSE, recollections of which appear in his contribution to ''My LSE'', Crick craved for greater recognition than his Senior Lecturership signified. LSE's promotion system was notoriously slow at the time. When appointed Professor of Political Theory and Political Institutions at Sheffield in 1965, Crick told ''Beaver'', the LSE student newspaper, that he was "going to a better place from the point of view of teaching students". Crick was an advisor to British Labour Party leader Neil Kinnock during the 1980s. When Labour came to power in 1997, Crick was appointed by his former student David Blunkett to head up an advisory group on citizenship education. The group's final report in 1998, known as the Crick Report, led to the introduction of citizenship as a core subject in the National Curriculum. He was knighted in the 2002 new years honours list for "services to citizenship in schools and to political studies". He authored the 2004 Home Office book '' Life in the United Kingdom: A Journey to Citizenship'', which forms the basis for the new citizenship test required by all people naturalising as British citizens. He taught at the

University of Sheffield The University of Sheffield (informally Sheffield University or TUOS) is a public university, public research university in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England. Its history traces back to the foundation of Sheffield Medical School in 1828, Fir ...

(1965–1971). and founded a Department of Politics and Sociology, later the Department of Politics, at Birkbeck College, University of London in 1972. Crick co-authored, with David Millar, an influential pamphlet entitled ''Making Scotland's Parliament Work''. Later in his life in Scotland, Crick was delighted to be appointed Stevenson Visiting Professor at Glasgow University. Despite his frail health at that time, Crick delivered a series of widely praised and very popular public lectures. Upon his death, Glasgow University marked his contribution by establishing the Bernard Crick Memorial Lecture. Crick made many other contributions to Scottish political life, from participating in his local Labour Party, to defending Glenogle Baths from closure, to, in his last weeks of life, penning a humorous Op-Ed for ''The Scotsman'' on the chaos caused by the tram line delays in Edinburgh.

Private life

Crick died from

prostate cancer Prostate cancer is the neoplasm, uncontrolled growth of cells in the prostate, a gland in the male reproductive system below the bladder. Abnormal growth of the prostate tissue is usually detected through Screening (medicine), screening tests, ...

at the age of 79, in St. Columba's Hospice,

Edinburgh Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. The city is located in southeast Scotland and is bounded to the north by the Firth of Forth and to the south by the Pentland Hills. Edinburgh ...

. It had been diagnosed about fourteen years earlier.

Awards and legacy

The PSA also created the Sir Bernard Crick Awards for Outstanding Teaching in honour of Crick and his work. Two awards are made at the PSA Annual Conference, the Main Prize, and a New Entrant Prize for early career academics. Crick was knighted in 2002. After his death, the University of Sheffield established the Sir Bernard Crick Centre. The centre aims to 'Bridge a number of gaps that appear to have emerged in recent decades (if not before). The first gap concerns the relationship between the governors and the governed in democratic countries.' The centre also aims to communicate social science to the public – or the social implications of 'hard' scientific advances – without, in doing so, losing those elements of scholarship that provide depth and context. Glasgow University also recognised Sir Bernard's contribution by establishing an annual memorial lecture series.

Work on George Orwell

In 1974, Crick began working on a biography of

George Orwell Eric Arthur Blair (25 June 1903 – 21 January 1950) was an English novelist, poet, essayist, journalist, and critic who wrote under the pen name of George Orwell. His work is characterised by lucid prose, social criticism, opposition to a ...

with the help of Orwell's second wife Sonia Brownell. The hardback edition rights were used to set up a grant in conjunction with Birkbeck College to fund projects by new writers that would have interested Orwell. In 1980, just before the book was published, a friend of Crick's, David Astor, agreed to match the grant. Over the years, there were contributions by Richard Blair, Orwell's adopted son, and ''

The Observer ''The Observer'' is a British newspaper published on Sundays. First published in 1791, it is the world's oldest Sunday newspaper. In 1993 it was acquired by Guardian Media Group Limited, and operated as a sister paper to ''The Guardian'' ...

'' newspaper, among others. Due to a lack of discernible projects, after five years the fund was diverted to produce an annual memorial lecture at Birkbeck College and the

, and also to provide small departmental grants. The lectures continue: they are now hosted each year by the Orwell Foundation (originally established by Crick as the Orwell Prize; see below) at University College London, home of the Orwell Archive; in November 2016 the Orwell Lecture was given by Ian Hislop. Previous lecturers include Rowan Williams and

Hilary Mantel Dame Hilary Mary Mantel ( ; born Thompson; 6 July 1952 – 22 September 2022) was a British writer whose work includes historical fiction, personal memoirs and short stories. Her first published novel, ''Every Day Is Mother's Day'', was releas ...

. In 2017, the Orwell Foundation and the Sir Bernard Crick Centre re-established a new Orwell Lecture in the North at the University of Sheffield: the inaugural lecture was given by Turner Prize-winning artist Grayson Perry. In 1993, Crick established the Orwell Prize with sponsorship from '' The Political Quarterly'' to honour political writing. Initially, two awards were given out each year – one for political journalism and the other for a political book. The first awards in 1994 were received by Anatol Lieven for his book ''The Baltic Revolution'' and to '' The Independent on Sunday'' journalist Neal Ascherson. Crick was on the judging panel until the 2007 awards. BBC official historian Professor Jean Seaton became Director of the prize in 2006 and the prize became a registered charity (The Orwell Foundation) in 2015. The Foundation awards four Orwell Prizes – for political journalism, political writing (non-fiction only), political fiction and Exposing Britain's Social Evils – and hosts regular debates, lectures and events, including the Orwell Lecture. Judging panels are appointed each year. In 2008, Crick became active in supporting "Orwell Direct", a website dedicated to the life and works of Orwell created by Dione Venables, which later became The Orwell Society.

Ideas

According to Crick, the ideologically driven leader practises a form of anti-politics in which the goal is the mobilisation of the populace towards a common end—even on pain of death.

Anti-behaviouralism

Crick's first book, ''The American Science of Politics'' (1959), attacked the behavioural approach to politics, which was dominant in the United States, and little known in Britain. He identified and rejected their basic premises: that research can discover uniformities in human behaviour, that these uniformities could be confirmed by empirical tests and measurements, that quantitative data was of the highest quality, and should be analysed statistically, that political science should be empirical and predictive, downplaying the philosophical and historical dimensions, and the value-free research was the ideal, with the goal of social science to be a macro theory covering all the social sciences, as opposed to applied issues of practical reform."Crick, Bernard," in John Ramsden (ed.), ''The Oxford Companion to Twentieth-century British Politics'' (2002), p. 174.

Publications

Crick's works include: * ''The American Science of Politics'' (1959) * ''In Defence of Politics'' (1962, and five subsequent editions, the last in 2002) * ''Political Theory and Practice'' (1963) * ''The Reform of Parliament'' (1964) * ''Parliament and the people'' (with Sally Jenkinson) (1966) * ''Essays on Reform'' (1967) * ''Crime, Rape and Gin: Reflections on Contemporary Attitudes to Violence, and Addiction'' (1974) * ''Essays on Political Education'' (with Derek Heater) (1977) * ''George Orwell: A Life'' (1980; revised 1982; revised and updated edition, 1992) *
Socialist Values and Time
' (1984) * ''Socialism'' (1987) * ''What is Politics?'' (with Tom Crick) * ''The Labour Party's Aims and Values: an unofficial statement'' (with David Blunkett) (1988) * ''Essays on Politics and Literature'' (1989) * ''Political Thoughts and Polemics'' (1990) * ''To Make the Parliament of Scotland a Model for Democracy'' (with David Millar) (1995) * ''Education for Citizenship and the Teaching of Democracy in Schools'' (aka ''The Crick Report'') (1998) * ''Crossing Borders: Political Essays'' (2001) * ''Democracy: A Very Short Introduction'' (2002) * ''The Commons in Transition'' (with A. H. Hanson) (1970) * ''The Future of the Social Services'' (with William Robson) (1970) * ''Protest and Discontent'' (1970) * ''Taxation Policy'' (with William A. Robson) (1973) * ''The Discourses by Niccolò Machiavelli'' (1974) * ''Political Education and Political Literacy'' (with Alex Porter) (1978) * ''Unemployment'' (1980) * ''National identities: the constitution of the United Kingdom'' (1991) * ''Citizens: Towards a Citizenship Culture'' (2001) * ''Education for Democratic Citizenship'' (with Andrew Lockyer) (2003)

References

External links

* Bernard Crick
"Big Brother belittled"
''The Guardian'', 19 August 2000.
Online version of Crick's biography ''George Orwell: A Life''
* The Orwell Prize * Trevor Smith
"Sir Bernard Crick" (obituary)
''The Guardian'', 19 December 2008
Sir Bernard Crick Archive
{{DEFAULTSORT:Crick, Bernard 1929 births 2008 deaths Academics of Birkbeck, University of London Academics of the University of Sheffield British humanists European democratic socialists Harvard University faculty Knights Bachelor People educated at Whitgift School Alumni of University College London Writers from London British political philosophers Deaths from prostate cancer in Scotland Academics of the London School of Economics George Orwell British socialists Members of the Fabian Society British republicans