David Kenneth Fieldhouse, FBA (7 June 1925 – 28 October 2018) was an English historian of the

British Empire The British Empire comprised the dominions, Crown colony, colonies, protectorates, League of Nations mandate, mandates, and other Dependent territory, territories ruled or administered by the United Kingdom and its predecessor states. It bega ...

. Fieldhouse was born to missionary parents in

Mussoorie Mussoorie () is a hill station and a municipal board, in Dehradun city in the Dehradun district of the Indian state of Uttarakhand. It is about from the state capital of Dehradun and north of the national capital of New Delhi. The hil ...

, northern India. He was sent to England for his education at

Dean Close School Dean Close School is a co-educational private boarding and day school (for pupils aged 3–18) in the public school tradition, located in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, England. The school opened in 1886 and is divided into pre-prep, prepa ...

, Cheltenham, from 1938 to 1943. Fieldhouse then completed naval service, before reading history at

The Queen's College, Oxford The Queen's College is a constituent college of the University of Oxford, England. The college was founded in 1341 by Robert de Eglesfield in honour of Philippa of Hainault, queen of England. It is distinguished by its predominantly neoclassi ...

. Between 1981 and 1992, Fieldhouse held the Vere Harmsworth Professorship of Imperial and Naval History at the

University of Cambridge The University of Cambridge is a Public university, public collegiate university, collegiate research university in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1209, the University of Cambridge is the List of oldest universities in continuous operation, wo ...

. Arguably the world's "leading imperial economic historian" he is most well known for his book, ''Economics and Empire, 1830–1914'' (1973), which offered a trenchant account of how political and strategic factors, rather than economic impulses, comprised the primary motors of European imperial expansion. Fieldhouse was a critic of the theories of imperialism put forward in the early 20th century by

John A. Hobson John Atkinson Hobson (6 July 1858 – 1 April 1940) was an English economist and social scientist. Hobson is best known for his writing on imperialism, which influenced Vladimir Lenin, and his theory of underconsumption. His principal and e ...

and

Lenin Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov ( 187021 January 1924), better known as Vladimir Lenin, was a Russian revolutionary, politician and political theorist. He was the first head of government of Soviet Russia from 1917 until Death and state funeral of ...

. He argued that they used superficial arguments and weak evidence. Fieldhouse said that the "obvious driving force of British expansion since 1870" came from explorers, missionaries, engineers, and empire-minded politicians. They had little interest in financial investments. Hobson's approach was to say that faceless financiers manipulated everyone else. "The final determination rests with the financial power." Lenin made the argument that capitalism was in its last stages and had been taken over by monopolists. They were no longer dynamic and sought to maintain profits by even more intensive exploitation of protected markets. Fieldhouse rejected these arguments as unfounded speculation.David K. Fieldhouse, "'Imperialism': An Historiographical Revision." ''Economic History Review'' 14#2 (1961): 187-209
in JSTOR
/ref> During the course of his career he held academic posts at the

University of Canterbury The University of Canterbury (UC; ; postnominal abbreviation ''Cantuar.'' or ''Cant.'' for ''Cantuariensis'', the Latin name for Canterbury) is a public research university based in Christchurch, New Zealand. It was founded in 1873 as Canterbur ...

Oxford University The University of Oxford is a collegiate research university in Oxford, England. There is evidence of teaching as early as 1096, making it the oldest university in the English-speaking world and the second-oldest continuously operating u ...

, and

Cambridge University The University of Cambridge is a Public university, public collegiate university, collegiate research university in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1209, the University of Cambridge is the List of oldest universities in continuous operation, wo ...

. Upon his retirement from Cambridge in 1992 his former students and colleagues published a

festschrift In academia, a ''Festschrift'' (; plural, ''Festschriften'' ) is a book honoring a respected person, especially an academic, and presented during their lifetime. It generally takes the form of an edited volume, containing contributions from the h ...

entitled, ''Managing the Business of Empire: Essays in Honour of David Fieldhouse''. Fieldhouse remained an active Emeritus Fellow of

Jesus College, Cambridge Jesus College is a Colleges of the University of Cambridge, constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Jesus College was established in 1496 on the site of the twelfth-century Benedictine nunnery of St Radegund's Priory, Cambridge, St ...

in later life. He died in October 2018 at the age of 93.

Selected bibliography

* "'Imperialism': An Historiographical Revision1." ''Economic History Review'' (1961) 14#2 pp: 187–209
online
*''Colonial Empires: A Comparative Survey from the Eighteenth Century'' (1966) *''Economics and Empire, 1830–1914'' (1973) *''Colonialism, 1870–1945: An Introduction'' (1981) * "Can Humpty‐Dumpty be put together again? Imperial history in the 1980s." ''The Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth History'' (1984) 12#2 pp: 9-23
online
*''Black Africa, 1945–80: Economic Decolonization & Arrested Development'' (1986) *''Merchant Capital and Economic Decolonization: The United Africa Company, 1929-8''7 (1994) * ''The West and the Third World: Trade, Colonialism, Dependence and Development'' (Oxford: Blackwell, 1999) *''Western Imperialism in the Middle East, 1914–1958'' (2006)

References

External links

Personal webpage at Jesus College, Cambridge. 1925 births 2018 deaths Academics of the University of Oxford British historians Fellows of the British Academy Fellows of Jesus College, Cambridge Historians of South Asia Vere Harmsworth Professors of Imperial and Naval History {{UK-historian-stub

Selected bibliography

See also

References

Further reading

External links