E.H. Carr
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Edward Hallett Carr (28 June 1892 – 3 November 1982) was a British historian, diplomat, journalist and
international relations International relations (IR, and also referred to as international studies, international politics, or international affairs) is an academic discipline. In a broader sense, the study of IR, in addition to multilateral relations, concerns al ...
theorist, and an opponent of
empiricism In philosophy, empiricism is an epistemological view which holds that true knowledge or justification comes only or primarily from sensory experience and empirical evidence. It is one of several competing views within epistemology, along ...
within
historiography Historiography is the study of the methods used by historians in developing history as an academic discipline. By extension, the term ":wikt:historiography, historiography" is any body of historical work on a particular subject. The historiog ...
. Carr was best known for '' A History of Soviet Russia'', a 14-volume history of the
Soviet Union The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...
from 1917 to 1929, for his writings on international relations, particularly '' The Twenty Years' Crisis'', and for his book ''
What Is History? ''What Is History?'' is a 1961 non-fiction book by historian E. H. Carr on historiography. It discusses history, facts, the bias of historians, science, morality, individuals and society, and moral judgements in history. The book originated in ...
'' in which he laid out historiographical principles rejecting traditional historical methods and practices. Educated at the Merchant Taylors' School, London, and then at
Trinity College, Cambridge Trinity College is a Colleges of the University of Cambridge, constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Founded in 1546 by King Henry VIII, Trinity is one of the largest Cambridge colleges, with the largest financial endowment of any ...
, Carr began his career as a diplomat in 1916; three years later, he participated at the
Paris Peace Conference Agreements and declarations resulting from meetings in Paris include: Listed by name Paris Accords may refer to: * Paris Accords, the agreements reached at the end of the London and Paris Conferences in 1954 concerning the post-war status of Germ ...
as a member of the British delegation. Becoming increasingly preoccupied with the study of international relations and of the
Soviet Union The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...
, he resigned from the
Foreign Office Foreign may refer to: Government * Foreign policy, how a country interacts with other countries * Ministry of Foreign Affairs, in many countries ** Foreign Office, a department of the UK government ** Foreign office and foreign minister * United ...
in 1936 to begin an academic career. From 1941 to 1946, Carr worked as an assistant editor at ''The Times'', where he was noted for his leaders (editorials) urging a socialist system and an Anglo-Soviet alliance as the basis of a post-war order.


Early life

Carr was born in London to a middle-class family, and was educated at the Merchant Taylors' School in London and
Trinity College, Cambridge Trinity College is a Colleges of the University of Cambridge, constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Founded in 1546 by King Henry VIII, Trinity is one of the largest Cambridge colleges, with the largest financial endowment of any ...
, where he was awarded a first class degree in
classics Classics, also classical studies or Ancient Greek and Roman studies, is the study of classical antiquity. In the Western world, ''classics'' traditionally refers to the study of Ancient Greek literature, Ancient Greek and Roman literature and ...
in 1916.Hughes-Warrington, p. 24 Carr's family had originated in northern England, and the first mention of his ancestors was a George Carr who served as the Sheriff of Newcastle in 1450. Carr's parents were Francis Parker and Jesse (née Hallet) Carr.Davies, "Edward Hallett Carr", p. 475 They were initially
Conservatives Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy and ideology that seeks to promote and preserve traditional institutions, customs, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civilizati ...
, but went over to supporting the Liberals in 1903 over the issue of
free trade Free trade is a trade policy that does not restrict imports or exports. In government, free trade is predominantly advocated by political parties that hold Economic liberalism, economically liberal positions, while economic nationalist politica ...
. When
Joseph Chamberlain Joseph Chamberlain (8 July 1836 – 2 July 1914) was a British statesman who was first a radical Liberal Party (UK), Liberal, then a Liberal Unionist after opposing home rule for Ireland, and eventually was a leading New Imperialism, imperial ...
proclaimed his opposition to free trade and announced in favour of
Imperial Preference Imperial Preference was a system of mutual tariff reduction enacted throughout the British Empire and British Commonwealth following the Ottawa Conference of 1932. As Commonwealth Preference, the proposal was later revived in regard to the member ...
, Carr's father, to whom all
tariff A tariff or import tax is a duty (tax), duty imposed by a national Government, government, customs territory, or supranational union on imports of goods and is paid by the importer. Exceptionally, an export tax may be levied on exports of goods ...
s were abhorrent, switched his political loyalties. Carr described the atmosphere at the Merchant Taylors School: "95% of my school fellows came from orthodox Conservative homes, and regarded
Lloyd George David Lloyd George, 1st Earl Lloyd-George of Dwyfor (17 January 1863 – 26 March 1945) was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1916 to 1922. A Liberal Party (United Kingdom), Liberal Party politician from Wales, he was known for leadi ...
as an incarnation of the devil. We Liberals were a tiny despised minority."Davies, "Edward Hallett Carr", p. 476 From his parents, Carr inherited a strong belief in progress as an unstoppable force in world affairs, and throughout his life a recurring theme in Carr's thinking was that the world was progressively becoming a better place.Haslam, "We Need a Faith", p. 36 In 1911, Carr won the Craven Scholarship to attend Trinity College at Cambridge. At Cambridge, Carr was much impressed by hearing one of his professors lecture on how the
Greco-Persian Wars The Greco-Persian Wars (also often called the Persian Wars) were a series of conflicts between the Achaemenid Empire and Polis, Greek city-states that started in 499 BC and lasted until 449 BC. The collision between the fractious political world ...
influenced
Herodotus Herodotus (; BC) was a Greek historian and geographer from the Greek city of Halicarnassus (now Bodrum, Turkey), under Persian control in the 5th century BC, and a later citizen of Thurii in modern Calabria, Italy. He wrote the '' Histori ...
in the writing of the ''Histories''.Haslam, "We Need a Faith", p. 39 Carr found this to be a great discovery—the subjectivity of the historian's craft. This discovery was later to influence his 1961 book ''What Is History?''


Diplomatic career

Like many of his generation, Carr found World War I to be a shattering experience as it destroyed the world he had known before 1914. He joined the British
Foreign Office Foreign may refer to: Government * Foreign policy, how a country interacts with other countries * Ministry of Foreign Affairs, in many countries ** Foreign Office, a department of the UK government ** Foreign office and foreign minister * United ...
in 1916, resigning in 1936. Carr was excused from military service for medical reasons. He was at first assigned to the Contraband Department of the Foreign Office, which sought to enforce the blockade on Germany, and then in 1917 was assigned to the Northern Department, which amongst other areas dealt with relations with Russia. As a diplomat, Carr was later praised by the Foreign Secretary
Lord Halifax Edward Frederick Lindley Wood, 1st Earl of Halifax (16 April 1881 – 23 December 1959), known as the Lord Irwin from 1925 until 1934 and the Viscount Halifax from 1934 until 1944, was a British Conservative politician of the 1930s. He h ...
as someone who had "distinguished himself not only by sound learning and political understanding, but also in administrative ability". At first, Carr knew nothing about the Bolsheviks. He later recalled of having some "vague impression of the revolutionary views of Lenin and Trotsky" but of knowing nothing of
Marxism Marxism is a political philosophy and method of socioeconomic analysis. It uses a dialectical and materialist interpretation of historical development, better known as historical materialism, to analyse class relations, social conflict, ...
.Davies, "Edward Hallett Carr", p. 477 By 1919, Carr had become convinced that the
Bolshevik The Bolsheviks, led by Vladimir Lenin, were a radical Faction (political), faction of the Marxist Russian Social Democratic Labour Party (RSDLP) which split with the Mensheviks at the 2nd Congress of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party, ...
s were destined to win the
Russian Civil War The Russian Civil War () was a multi-party civil war in the former Russian Empire sparked by the 1917 overthrowing of the Russian Provisional Government in the October Revolution, as many factions vied to determine Russia's political future. I ...
, and approved of the Prime Minister
David Lloyd George David Lloyd George, 1st Earl Lloyd-George of Dwyfor (17 January 1863 – 26 March 1945) was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1916 to 1922. A Liberal Party (United Kingdom), Liberal Party politician from Wales, he was known for leadi ...
's opposition to the anti-Bolshevik ideas of the War Secretary
Winston Churchill Sir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill (30 November 1874 – 24 January 1965) was a British statesman, military officer, and writer who was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1940 to 1945 (Winston Churchill in the Second World War, ...
on the grounds of ''
realpolitik ''Realpolitik'' ( ; ) is the approach of conducting diplomatic or political policies based primarily on considerations of given circumstances and factors, rather than strictly following ideological, moral, or ethical premises. In this respect, ...
''. He later wrote that in the spring of 1919 he "was disappointed when he loyd Georgegave way (in part) on the Russian question in order to buy French consent to concessions to Germany". In 1919, Carr was part of the British delegation at the
Paris Peace Conference Agreements and declarations resulting from meetings in Paris include: Listed by name Paris Accords may refer to: * Paris Accords, the agreements reached at the end of the London and Paris Conferences in 1954 concerning the post-war status of Germ ...
and was involved in the drafting of parts of the
Treaty of Versailles The Treaty of Versailles was a peace treaty signed on 28 June 1919. As the most important treaty of World War I, it ended the state of war between Germany and most of the Allies of World War I, Allied Powers. It was signed in the Palace ...
relating to the
League of Nations The League of Nations (LN or LoN; , SdN) was the first worldwide intergovernmental organisation whose principal mission was to maintain world peace. It was founded on 10 January 1920 by the Paris Peace Conference (1919–1920), Paris Peace ...
. During the conference, Carr was much offended at the Allied, especially French, treatment of the Germans, writing that the German delegation at the peace conference were "cheated over the 'Fourteen Points', and subjected to every petty humiliation". Beside working on the sections of the Versailles treaty relating to the League of Nations, Carr was also involved in working out the borders between Germany and Poland. Initially, Carr favoured Poland, urging in a memo in February 1919 that Britain recognise Poland at once, and that the German city of Danzig (modern
Gdańsk Gdańsk is a city on the Baltic Sea, Baltic coast of northern Poland, and the capital of the Pomeranian Voivodeship. With a population of 486,492, Data for territorial unit 2261000. it is Poland's sixth-largest city and principal seaport. Gdań ...
, Poland) be ceded to Poland. In March 1919, Carr fought against the idea of a Minorities Treaty for Poland, arguing that the rights of ethnic and religious minorities in Poland would be best guaranteed by not involving the international community in Polish internal affairs. By the spring of 1919, Carr's relations with the Polish delegation had declined to a state of mutual hostility.Haslam, ''The Vices of Integrity'', p. 29 Carr's tendency to favour the claims of the Germans at the expense of the Poles led British-Polish historian
Adam Zamoyski Adam Zamoyski (born 11 January 1949) is a British historian and author descended from the historically important Polish nobility. Personal life Born in New York City in 1949, as Adam Stefan Zamoyski, the youngest son of Count Stefan Zamoyski ( ...
to note that Carr "held views of the most extraordinary racial arrogance on all of the nations of Eastern Europe". Carr's biographer, Jonathan Haslam, wrote that Carr grew up in a place where German culture was deeply appreciated, which in turn always coloured his views towards Germany throughout his life.Haslam, "E.H. Carr's Search for Meaning" pp. 21–35 from ''E.H. Carr A Critical Appraisal'' ed. Michael Cox, Palgrave: London, 2000 p. 27 As a result, Carr supported the territorial claims of fledgling
Weimar Germany The Weimar Republic, officially known as the German Reich, was the German Reich, German state from 1918 to 1933, during which it was a constitutional republic for the first time in history; hence it is also referred to, and unofficially proclai ...
against Poland. In a letter written in 1954 to his friend
Isaac Deutscher Isaac Deutscher (; 3 April 1907 – 19 August 1967) was a Polish Marxist writer, journalist and political activist who moved to the United Kingdom before the outbreak of World War II. He is best known as a biographer of Leon Trotsky and Joseph S ...
, Carr described his attitude to Poland at the time: "The picture of Poland that was universal in Eastern Europe right down to 1925 was of a strong and potentially predatory power." After the peace conference, Carr was stationed at the British Embassy in Paris until 1921, and in 1920 was awarded a
CBE The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding valuable service in a wide range of useful activities. It comprises five classes of awards across both civil and military divisions, the most senior two o ...
. At first, Carr had great faith in the League, which he believed would prevent both another world war and ensure a better post-war world. In the 1920s, Carr was assigned to the branch of the British Foreign Office that dealt with the
League of Nations The League of Nations (LN or LoN; , SdN) was the first worldwide intergovernmental organisation whose principal mission was to maintain world peace. It was founded on 10 January 1920 by the Paris Peace Conference (1919–1920), Paris Peace ...
before being sent to the British Embassy in
Riga Riga ( ) is the capital, Primate city, primate, and List of cities and towns in Latvia, largest city of Latvia. Home to 591,882 inhabitants (as of 2025), the city accounts for a third of Latvia's total population. The population of Riga Planni ...
, Latvia, where he served as Second Secretary between 1925 and 1929. In 1925, Carr married Anne Ward Howe, by whom he had one son.Cobb, Adam "Carr, E.H." pp. 180–181 from ''The Encyclopedia of Historians and Historical Writing'', Volume 1, Chicago: Fitzroy Dearborn, 1999 p. 180 During his time in Riga (which at that time possessed a substantial Russian émigré community), Carr became increasingly fascinated with Russian literature and culture and wrote several works on various aspects of Russian life. Carr learnt Russian during his time in Riga, to read Russian writers in the original. In 1927, Carr paid his first visit to Moscow. He was later to write that reading
Alexander Herzen Alexander Ivanovich Herzen (; ) was a Russian writer and thinker known as the precursor of Russian socialism and one of the main precursors of agrarian populism (being an ideological ancestor of the Narodniki, Socialist-Revolutionaries, Trudo ...
,
Fyodor Dostoyevsky Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky. () was a Russian novelist, short story writer, essayist and journalist. He is regarded as one of the greatest novelists in both Russian literature, Russian and world literature, and many of his works are consider ...
and the work of other 19th-century Russian intellectuals caused him to re-think his liberal views. Starting in 1929, Carr began to review books relating to all things Russian and Soviet and to international relations in several British literary journals and, towards the end of his life, in the ''
London Review of Books The ''London Review of Books'' (''LRB'') is a British literary magazine published bimonthly that features articles and essays on fiction and non-fiction subjects, which are usually structured as book reviews. History The ''London Review of Book ...
''. In particular, Carr emerged as the ''Times Literary Supplements Soviet expert in the early 1930s, a position he still held at the time of his death in 1982. Because of his status as a diplomat (until 1936), most of Carr's reviews in the period 1929–36 were published either anonymously or under the pseudonym "John Hallett". In the summer of 1929, Carr began work on a biography of Fyodor Dostoyevsky and, in the course of researching Dostoevsky's life, Carr befriended Prince D. S. Mirsky, a Russian émigré scholar living at that time in Britain. Beside studies on
international relations International relations (IR, and also referred to as international studies, international politics, or international affairs) is an academic discipline. In a broader sense, the study of IR, in addition to multilateral relations, concerns al ...
, Carr's writings in the 1930s included biographies of Dostoyevsky (1931),
Karl Marx Karl Marx (; 5 May 1818 – 14 March 1883) was a German philosopher, political theorist, economist, journalist, and revolutionary socialist. He is best-known for the 1848 pamphlet '' The Communist Manifesto'' (written with Friedrich Engels) ...
(1934), and
Mikhail Bakunin Mikhail Alexandrovich Bakunin. Sometimes anglicized to Michael Bakunin. ( ; – 1 July 1876) was a Russian revolutionary anarchist. He is among the most influential figures of anarchism and a major figure in the revolutionary socialist, s ...
(1937). An early sign of Carr's increasing admiration of the Soviet Union was a 1929 review of Baron
Pyotr Wrangel Baron Pyotr Nikolayevich Wrangel (, ; ; 25 April 1928), also known by his nickname the Black Baron, was a Russian military officer of Baltic German origin in the Imperial Russian Army. During the final phase of the Russian Civil War, he was c ...
's memoirs. In an article entitled "Age of Reason" published in the ''Spectator'' on 26 April 1930, Carr attacked what he regarded as the prevailing culture of pessimism within the West, which he blamed on the French writer
Marcel Proust Valentin Louis Georges Eugène Marcel Proust ( ; ; 10 July 1871 – 18 November 1922) was a French novelist, literary critic, and essayist who wrote the novel (in French – translated in English as ''Remembrance of Things Past'' and more r ...
.Haslam, ''The Vices of Integrity'', p. 47 In the early 1930s, Carr found the
Great Depression The Great Depression was a severe global economic downturn from 1929 to 1939. The period was characterized by high rates of unemployment and poverty, drastic reductions in industrial production and international trade, and widespread bank and ...
to be almost as profoundly shocking as the First World War.Haslam, "We Need a Faith", p. 37 Further increasing Carr's interest in a replacement ideology for liberalism was his reaction to hearing the debates in January 1931 at the General Assembly of the League of Nations in
Geneva Geneva ( , ; ) ; ; . is the List of cities in Switzerland, second-most populous city in Switzerland and the most populous in French-speaking Romandy. Situated in the southwest of the country, where the Rhône exits Lake Geneva, it is the ca ...
, Switzerland, and especially the speeches on the merits of free trade between the Yugoslav Foreign Minister Vojislav Marinkovich and the British Foreign Secretary
Arthur Henderson Arthur Henderson (13 September 1863 – 20 October 1935) was a British iron moulder and Labour Party (UK), Labour politician. He was the first Labour Cabinet of the United Kingdom, cabinet minister, won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1934 and, uniqu ...
.Davies, "Edward Hallett Carr", p. 481 It was at this time that Carr started to admire the Soviet Union. In a 1932 book review of Lancelot Lawton's ''Economic History of Soviet Russia'', Carr dismissed Lawton's claim that the Soviet economy was a failure, and praised the British Marxist economist
Maurice Dobb Maurice Herbert Dobb (24 July 1900 – 17 August 1976) was an English economist at Cambridge University and a Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge. He is remembered as one of the pre-eminent Marxist economists of the 20th century. Dobb was high ...
's extremely favourable assessment of the Soviet economy. Davies, R.W. "Carr's Changing Views of the Soviet Union" pp. 91–108 from ''E.H. Carr: A Critical Appraisal'' ed. Michael Cox, London: Palgrave, 2000 p. 98 Carr's early political outlook was anti-Marxist and liberal. In his 1934 biography of Marx, Carr presented his subject as a highly intelligent man and a gifted writer, but one whose talents were devoted entirely to destruction.Laqueur, p. 113 Carr argued that Marx's sole and only motivation was a mindless class hatred. Carr labelled
dialectical materialism Dialectical materialism is a materialist theory based upon the writings of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels that has found widespread applications in a variety of philosophical disciplines ranging from philosophy of history to philosophy of scien ...
gibberish, and the labour theory of value doctrinal and derivative. He praised Marx for emphasising the importance of the collective over the individual. In view of his later conversion to a sort of quasi-Marxism, Carr was to find the passages in ''Karl Marx: A Study in Fanaticism'' criticising Marx to be highly embarrassing, and refused to allow the book to be republished. Carr was to later call it his worst book, and complained that he had written it only because his publisher had made a Marx biography a precondition for publishing the biography of Bakunin that he was writing. In his books such as ''The Romantic Exiles'' and ''Dostoevsky'', Carr was noted for his highly ironical treatment of his subjects, implying that their lives were of interest but not of great importance. In the mid-1930s, Carr was especially preoccupied with the life and ideas of Bakunin.Davies, "Edward Hallett Carr", p. 479 During this period, Carr started writing a novel about the visit of a Bakunin-type Russian radical to Victorian Britain who proceeded to expose all of what Carr regarded as the pretensions and hypocrisies of British bourgeois society. The novel was never finished or published. As a diplomat in the 1930s, Carr took the view that great division of the world into rival trading blocs caused by the American Smoot–Hawley Act of 1930 was the principal cause of German belligerence in foreign policy, as Germany was now unable to export finished goods or import raw materials cheaply. In Carr's opinion, if Germany could be given its own economic zone to dominate in Eastern Europecomparable to the British Imperial preference economic zone, the US dollar zone in the Americas, the French gold bloc zone, and the Japanese economic zonethen the peace of the world could be assured. In an essay published in February 1933 in the ''Fortnightly Review'', Carr blamed what he regarded as a punitive Versailles treaty for the recent accession to power of
Adolf Hitler Adolf Hitler (20 April 1889 – 30 April 1945) was an Austrian-born German politician who was the dictator of Nazi Germany from 1933 until Death of Adolf Hitler, his suicide in 1945. Adolf Hitler's rise to power, He rose to power as the lea ...
.Haslam, ''The Vices of Integrity'', p. 59 Carr's views on appeasement caused much tension with his superior, the Permanent Undersecretary Sir Robert Vansittart, and played a role in Carr's resignation from the Foreign Office later in 1936. In an article entitled "An English Nationalist Abroad" published in May 1936 in the ''Spectator'', Carr wrote: "The methods of the Tudor sovereigns, when they were making the English nation, invite many comparisons with those of the Nazi regime in Germany".Haslam, ''The Vices of Integrity'', p. 79 In this way, Carr argued that it was hypocritical for people in Britain to criticise the Nazi regime's human rights record. Because of Carr's strong antagonism to the
Treaty of Versailles The Treaty of Versailles was a peace treaty signed on 28 June 1919. As the most important treaty of World War I, it ended the state of war between Germany and most of the Allies of World War I, Allied Powers. It was signed in the Palace ...
, which he viewed as unjust to Germany, Carr was very supportive of the Nazi regime's efforts to destroy Versailles through moves such as the
remilitarisation of the Rhineland The remilitarisation of the Rhineland (, ) began on 7 March 1936, when military forces of Nazi Germany entered the Rhineland, which directly contravened the Treaty of Versailles and the Locarno Treaties. Neither France nor Britain was prepared ...
in 1936.Davies, "Edward Hallett Carr", p. 483 Of his views in the 1930s, Carr later wrote: "No doubt, I was very blind."


International relations scholar

In 1936, Carr became the Woodrow Wilson Professor of International Politics at the
University College of Wales, Aberystwyth Aberystwyth University () is a Public university, public Research university, research university in Aberystwyth, Wales. Aberystwyth was a founding member institution of the former federal University of Wales. The university has over 8,000 stude ...
, and is particularly known for his contribution on
international relations theory International relations theory is the study of international relations (IR) from a theoretical perspective. It seeks to explain behaviors and outcomes in international politics. The three most prominent School of thought, schools of thought are ...
. Carr's last words of advice as a diplomat were a memo urging that Britain accept the
Balkans The Balkans ( , ), corresponding partially with the Balkan Peninsula, is a geographical area in southeastern Europe with various geographical and historical definitions. The region takes its name from the Balkan Mountains that stretch throug ...
as an exclusive zone of influence for Germany. Additionally, in articles published in ''
The Christian Science Monitor ''The Christian Science Monitor'' (''CSM''), commonly known as ''The Monitor'', is a nonprofit news organization that publishes daily articles both in Electronic publishing, electronic format and a weekly print edition. It was founded in 1908 ...
'' on 2 December 1936 and in the January 1937 edition of ''
Fortnightly Review ''The Fortnightly Review'' was one of the most prominent and influential magazines in nineteenth-century England. It was founded in 1865 by Anthony Trollope, Frederic Harrison, Edward Spencer Beesly, and six others with an investment of £9,000 ...
'', Carr argued that the Soviet Union and France were not working for
collective security Collective security is arrangement between states in which the institution accepts that an attack on one state is the concern of all and merits a collective response to threats by all. Collective security was a key principle underpinning the Lea ...
but rather "a division of the Great Powers into two armored camps", supported non-intervention in the
Spanish Civil War The Spanish Civil War () was a military conflict fought from 1936 to 1939 between the Republican faction (Spanish Civil War), Republicans and the Nationalist faction (Spanish Civil War), Nationalists. Republicans were loyal to the Left-wing p ...
, and asserted that King
Leopold III of Belgium Leopold III (3 November 1901 – 25 September 1983) was King of the Belgians from 23 February 1934 until his abdication on 16 July 1951. At the outbreak of World War II, Leopold tried to maintain Belgian neutrality, but after the Battle of Belgi ...
had made a major step towards peace with his declaration of neutrality of 14 October 1936.Davies, "Edward Hallett Carr", p. 484 Two major intellectual influences on Carr in the mid-1930s were
Karl Mannheim Karl Mannheim (born Károly Manheim, 27 March 1893 – 9 January 1947) was a Hungarian sociologist and a key figure in classical sociology as well as one of the founders of the sociology of knowledge. Mannheim is best known for his book '' Id ...
's 1936 book ''Ideology and Utopia'', and the work of
Reinhold Niebuhr Karl Paul Reinhold Niebuhr (June 21, 1892 – June 1, 1971) was an American Reformed theologian, ethicist, commentator on politics and public affairs, and professor at Union Theological Seminary for more than 30 years. Niebuhr was one of Ameri ...
on the need to combine morality with realism. Carr's appointment as the Woodrow Wilson Professor of International Politics caused a stir when he started to use his position to criticise the
League of Nations The League of Nations (LN or LoN; , SdN) was the first worldwide intergovernmental organisation whose principal mission was to maintain world peace. It was founded on 10 January 1920 by the Paris Peace Conference (1919–1920), Paris Peace ...
, a viewpoint which caused much tension with his benefactor, Lord Davies, who was a strong supporter of the League.Porter, pp. 50–51 Lord Davies had established the Wilson Chair in 1924 with the intention of increasing public support for his beloved League, which helps to explain his chagrin at Carr's anti-League lectures. In his first lecture on 14 October 1936 Carr stated that the League was ineffective.Porter, p. 51 In 1936, Carr began to work for
Chatham House The Royal Institute of International Affairs, also known as Chatham House, is a British think tank based in London, England. Its stated mission is "to help governments and societies build a sustainably secure, prosperous, and just world". It ...
, where he chaired a study group tasked with producing a report on nationalism. The report was published in 1939. In 1937, Carr visited the Soviet Union for a second time, and was impressed by what he saw. During his visit, Carr may have inadvertently caused the death of his friend, Prince D. S. Mirsky.Haslam, ''The Vices of Integrity'', p. 76 Carr stumbled into Prince Mirsky on the streets of
Leningrad Saint Petersburg, formerly known as Petrograd and later Leningrad, is the List of cities and towns in Russia by population, second-largest city in Russia after Moscow. It is situated on the Neva, River Neva, at the head of the Gulf of Finland ...
(modern
Saint Petersburg Saint Petersburg, formerly known as Petrograd and later Leningrad, is the List of cities and towns in Russia by population, second-largest city in Russia after Moscow. It is situated on the Neva, River Neva, at the head of the Gulf of Finland ...
), and despite Prince Mirsky's best efforts to pretend not to know him, Carr persuaded his old friend to have lunch with him. Since this was at the height of the ''Yezhovshchina'', and any Soviet citizen who had any unauthorised contact with a foreigner was likely to be regarded as a spy, the
NKVD The People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs (, ), abbreviated as NKVD (; ), was the interior ministry and secret police of the Soviet Union from 1934 to 1946. The agency was formed to succeed the Joint State Political Directorate (OGPU) se ...
arrested Prince Mirsky as a British spy; he died two years later in a
Gulag The Gulag was a system of Labor camp, forced labor camps in the Soviet Union. The word ''Gulag'' originally referred only to the division of the Chronology of Soviet secret police agencies, Soviet secret police that was in charge of runnin ...
camp near
Magadan Magadan ( rus, Магадан, p=məɡɐˈdan) is a Port of Magadan, port types of inhabited localities in Russia, town and the administrative centre of Magadan Oblast, Russia. The city is located on the isthmus of the Staritsky Peninsula by the ...
. As part of the same trip that took Carr to the Soviet Union in 1937 was a visit to Germany. In a speech given on 12 October 1937 at Chatham House summarising his impressions of those two countries, Carr reported that Germany was "almost a free country".Haslam, ''The Vices of Integrity'', p. 78 Apparently unaware of the fate of Prince Mirsky, Carr spoke of the "strange behaviour" of his old friend, who had at first gone to great lengths to try to pretend that he did not know Carr during their accidental meeting. In the 1930s, Carr was a leading supporter of
appeasement Appeasement, in an International relations, international context, is a diplomacy, diplomatic negotiation policy of making political, material, or territorial concessions to an aggressive power (international relations), power with intention t ...
.Laqueur, pp. 113–114 In his writings on international affairs in British newspapers, Carr criticised the Czechoslovak President
Edvard Beneš Edvard Beneš (; 28 May 1884 – 3 September 1948) was a Czech politician and statesman who served as the president of Czechoslovakia from 1935 to 1938, and again from 1939 to 1948. During the first six years of his second stint, he led the Czec ...
for clinging to the alliance with France, rather than accepting that it was his country's destiny to be in the German sphere of influence. At the same time, Carr strongly praised the Polish Foreign Minister Colonel
Józef Beck Józef Beck (; 4 October 1894 – 5 June 1944) was a Polish statesman who served the Second Republic of Poland as a diplomat and military officer. A close associate of Józef Piłsudski, Beck is most famous for being Polish foreign minister in ...
for his balancing act between France, Germany, and the Soviet Union. In the late 1930s, Carr started to become even more sympathetic toward the Soviet Union, as he was much impressed by the achievements of the
Five-Year Plans Five-year plan may refer to: Nation plans * Five-year plans of the Soviet Union, a series of nationwide centralized economic plans in the Soviet Union * Five-Year Plans of Argentina, under Peron (1946–1955) * Five-Year Plans of Bhutan, a series ...
, which stood in marked contrast to the failures of capitalism during the
Great Depression The Great Depression was a severe global economic downturn from 1929 to 1939. The period was characterized by high rates of unemployment and poverty, drastic reductions in industrial production and international trade, and widespread bank and ...
. His famous work '' The Twenty Years' Crisis'' was published in July 1939, which dealt with the subject of international relations between 1919 and 1939. In that book, Carr defended appeasement on the ground that it was the only realistic policy option.Laqueur, p. 114 At the time the book was published in the summer of 1939,
Neville Chamberlain Arthur Neville Chamberlain (; 18 March 18699 November 1940) was a British politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from May 1937 to May 1940 and Leader of the Conservative Party (UK), Leader of the Conservative Party from ...
had adopted his "containment" policy towards Germany, leading Carr to later ruefully comment that his book was dated even before it was published. In the spring and summer of 1939, Carr was very dubious about Chamberlain's "guarantee" of Polish independence issued on 31 March 1939. In ''The Twenty Years' Crisis'', Carr divided thinkers on international relations into two schools, which he labelled the utopians and the realists. Reflecting his own disillusion with the League of Nations, Carr attacked as "utopians" those like
Norman Angell Sir Ralph Norman Angell (26 December 1872 – 7 October 1967) was an English Nobel Peace Prize winner. He was a lecturer, journalist, author and Member of Parliament for the Labour Party. Angell was one of the principal founders of the Union ...
who believed that a new and better international structure could be built around the League. In Carr's opinion, the entire international order constructed at Versailles was flawed and the League was a hopeless dream that could never do anything practical. Carr described the opposition of utopianism and realism in international relations as a dialectic progress.Laqueur, p. 115 He argued that in realism there is no moral dimension, so that for a realist what is successful is right and what is unsuccessful is wrong. Carr contended that international relations was an incessant struggle between the economically privileged "have" powers and the economically disadvantaged "have not" powers. In this economic understanding of international relations, "have" powers like the United States, Britain and France were inclined to avoid war because of their contented status whereas "have not" powers like Germany, Italy and Japan were inclined towards war as they had nothing to lose.Jones, Charles ''E.H. Carr and International Relations: A Duty to Lie'', Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998 p. 29 Carr defended the
Munich Agreement The Munich Agreement was reached in Munich on 30 September 1938, by Nazi Germany, the United Kingdom, the French Third Republic, French Republic, and the Kingdom of Italy. The agreement provided for the Occupation of Czechoslovakia (1938–194 ...
as the overdue recognition of changes in the balance of power. In ''The Twenty Years' Crisis'', he was highly critical of
Winston Churchill Sir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill (30 November 1874 – 24 January 1965) was a British statesman, military officer, and writer who was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1940 to 1945 (Winston Churchill in the Second World War, ...
, whom Carr described as a mere opportunist interested only in power for himself. Carr immediately followed up ''The Twenty Years' Crisis'' with ''Britain: A Study of Foreign Policy From The Versailles Treaty to the Outbreak of War'', a study of British foreign policy in the inter-war period that featured a preface by the Foreign Secretary,
Lord Halifax Edward Frederick Lindley Wood, 1st Earl of Halifax (16 April 1881 – 23 December 1959), known as the Lord Irwin from 1925 until 1934 and the Viscount Halifax from 1934 until 1944, was a British Conservative politician of the 1930s. He h ...
. Carr ended his support for appeasement, which he had so vociferously expressed in ''The Twenty Years' Crisis'', with a favourable review of a book containing a collection of Churchill's speeches from 1936 to 1938, which Carr wrote were "justifiably" alarmist about Germany. After 1939, Carr largely abandoned writing about international relations in favour of contemporary events and
Soviet history The history of the Soviet Union (USSR) (1922–91) began with the ideals of the Russian Bolshevik Revolution and ended in dissolution amidst economic collapse and political disintegration. Established in 1922 following the Russian Civil War, ...
. Carr was to write only three more books about international relations after 1939, namely ''The Future of Nations; Independence Or Interdependence?'' (1941), ''German-Soviet Relations Between the Two World Wars, 1919–1939'' (1951) and ''International Relations Between the Two World Wars, 1919–1939'' (1955). After the outbreak of World War II, Carr stated that he had been somewhat mistaken in his prewar views on Nazi Germany. In the 1946 revised edition of ''The Twenty Years' Crisis'', Carr was more hostile in his appraisal of German foreign policy than he had been in the first edition in 1939. Some of the major themes of Carr's writings were change and the relationship between ideational and material forces in society. He saw as a major theme of history the growth of
reason Reason is the capacity of consciously applying logic by drawing valid conclusions from new or existing information, with the aim of seeking the truth. It is associated with such characteristically human activities as philosophy, religion, scien ...
as a social force. He argued that all major social changes had been caused by revolutions or wars, both of which Carr regarded as necessary but unpleasant means of accomplishing social change.


World War II

During World War II, Carr's political views took a sharp turn towards the left. He spent the
Phoney War The Phoney War (; ; ) was an eight-month period at the outset of World War II during which there were virtually no Allied military land operations on the Western Front from roughly September 1939 to May 1940. World War II began on 3 Septembe ...
working as a clerk with the propaganda department of the
Foreign Office Foreign may refer to: Government * Foreign policy, how a country interacts with other countries * Ministry of Foreign Affairs, in many countries ** Foreign Office, a department of the UK government ** Foreign office and foreign minister * United ...
. As Carr did not believe that Britain could defeat Germany, the declaration of war on Germany on 3 September 1939 left him highly depressed. In March 1940, Carr resigned from the Foreign Office to serve as the writer of leaders (editorials) for ''
The Times ''The Times'' is a British Newspaper#Daily, daily Newspaper#National, national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its modern name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its si ...
''.Haslam, ''The Vices of Integrity'', p. 84 In his second leader, published on 21 June 1940 and entitled "The German Dream", Carr wrote that Hitler was offering a "Europe united by conquest". In a leader during the summer of 1940, Carr supported the Soviet annexation of the
Baltic States The Baltic states or the Baltic countries is a geopolitical term encompassing Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania. All three countries are members of NATO, the European Union, the Eurozone, and the OECD. The three sovereign states on the eastern co ...
. Carr served as the assistant editor of ''
The Times ''The Times'' is a British Newspaper#Daily, daily Newspaper#National, national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its modern name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its si ...
'' from 1941 to 1946, during which time he was well known for the pro-Soviet attitudes that he expressed in his leaders. After June 1941, Carr' s already strong admiration for the Soviet Union was much increased by the Soviet Union's role in defeating Germany. In a leader of 5 December 1940 entitled "The Two Scourges", Carr wrote that only by removing the "scourge" of unemployment could one also remove the "scourge" of war.Davies, "Edward Hallett Carr", p. 487 Such was the popularity of "The Two Scourges" that it was published as a pamphlet in December 1940, during which its first print run of 10,000 completely sold out. Carr's left-wing leaders caused some tension with the editor of the ''Times'', Geoffrey Dawson, who felt that Carr was taking the ''Times'' in too radical a direction, which led to Carr being restricted for a time to writing only on foreign policy. After Dawson was ousted in May 1941 and replaced with Robert M'Gowan Barrington-Ward, Carr was given a free rein to write on whatever he wished. In turn, Barrington-Ward was to find many of Carr's leaders on foreign affairs to be too radical for his liking. Carr's leaders were noted for their advocacy of a socialist European economy under the control of an international planning board, and for his support for the idea of an Anglo-Soviet alliance as the basis of the post-war international order. Unlike many of his contemporaries in war-time Britain, Carr was against a
Carthaginian peace A Carthaginian peace is the imposition of a very brutal peace intended to permanently cripple the losing side. The term derives from the peace terms imposed on the Carthaginian Empire by the Roman Republic following the Punic Wars. After the Second ...
with Germany, and argued for a post-war reconstruction of Germany along socialist lines.Haslam, ''The Vices of Integrity'', p. 100 In his leaders on foreign affairs, Carr was very consistent in arguing after 1941 that, once the war ended, it was the fate of Eastern Europe to come into the Soviet sphere of influence, and claimed that any effort to the contrary was both vain and immoral.Davies, "Edward Hallett Carr", p. 488 Between 1942 and 1945, Carr was the Chairman of a study group at the
Royal Institute of International Affairs Royal may refer to: People * Royal (name), a list of people with either the surname or given name * A member of a royal family or royalty Places United States * Royal, Arkansas, an unincorporated community * Royal, Illinois, a village * Roya ...
concerned with Anglo-Soviet relations. Carr's study group concluded that Stalin had largely abandoned Communist ideology in favour of Russian nationalism, that the Soviet economy would provide a higher standard of living in the Soviet Union after the war, and that it was both possible and desirable for Britain to reach a friendly understanding with the Soviets once the war had ended. In 1942, Carr published '' Conditions of Peace'', followed by '' Nationalism and After'' in 1945, in which he outlined his ideas about how the post-war world should look. In his books, and his ''Times'' leaders, Carr urged for the creation of a socialist European federation anchored by an Anglo-German partnership that would be aligned with the Soviet Union against the United States.Davies, "Edward Hallett Carr", p. 489 In his 1942 book ''Conditions of Peace'', Carr argued that it was a flawed economic system that had caused World War II and that the only way of preventing another world war was for the Western powers to adopt socialism. One of the main sources for ideas in ''Conditions of Peace'' was the 1940 book ''Dynamics of War and Revolution'' by the American
Lawrence Dennis Lawrence Dennis (December 25, 1893 – August 20, 1977) was an American diplomat, consultant, and author. He advocated fascism in America after the Great Depression, arguing that liberal capitalism was doomed and one-party planning of the econom ...
. In a review of ''Conditions of Peace'', the British writer
Rebecca West Dame Cecily Isabel Fairfield (21 December 1892 – 15 March 1983), known as Rebecca West, or Dame Rebecca West, was a British author, journalist, literary critic and travel writer. An author who wrote in many genres, West reviewed books ...
criticised Carr for using Dennis as a source, commenting: "It is as odd for a serious English writer to quote Sir Oswald Mosley". In a speech on 2 June 1942 in the
House of Lords The House of Lords is the upper house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Like the lower house, the House of Commons of the United Kingdom, House of Commons, it meets in the Palace of Westminster in London, England. One of the oldest ext ...
, Viscount Elibank attacked Carr as an "active danger" for his views in ''Conditions of Peace'' about a magnanimous peace with Germany and for suggesting that Britain turn over all of her colonies to an international commission after the war. The next month, Carr's relations with the Polish government were further worsened by the storm caused by the discovery of the
Katyn massacre The Katyn massacre was a series of mass killings under Communist regimes, mass executions of nearly 22,000 Polish people, Polish military officer, military and police officers, border guards, and intelligentsia prisoners of war carried out by t ...
committed by the Russian
NKVD The People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs (, ), abbreviated as NKVD (; ), was the interior ministry and secret police of the Soviet Union from 1934 to 1946. The agency was formed to succeed the Joint State Political Directorate (OGPU) se ...
in 1940. In a leader entitled "Russia and Poland" on 28 April 1943, Carr blasted the Polish government for accusing the Soviets of committing the Katyn massacre and for asking the
Red Cross The organized International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement is a Humanitarianism, humanitarian movement with approximately 16million volunteering, volunteers, members, and staff worldwide. It was founded to protect human life and health, to ...
to investigate.Haslam, ''The Vices of Integrity'', p. 104 Lord Davies, who had been extremely unhappy with Carr almost from the moment that Carr had assumed the Wilson Chair in 1936, launched a major campaign in 1943 to have Carr fired, being particularly upset that, although Carr had not taught since 1939, he was still drawing his professor's salary. Lord Davies's efforts to have Carr fired failed when a majority of the Aberystwyth staff, supported by the powerful Welsh political fixer Thomas Jones, sided with Carr. In December 1944, when fighting broke out in
Athens Athens ( ) is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Greece, largest city of Greece. A significant coastal urban area in the Mediterranean, Athens is also the capital of the Attica (region), Attica region and is the southe ...
between the Greek Communist front organisation
ELAS The Greek People's Liberation Army (, ''Ellinikós Laïkós Apeleftherotikós Stratós''; ELAS) was the military arm of the left-wing National Liberation Front (EAM) during the period of the Greek resistance until February 1945, when, followi ...
and the
British Army The British Army is the principal Army, land warfare force of the United Kingdom. the British Army comprises 73,847 regular full-time personnel, 4,127 Brigade of Gurkhas, Gurkhas, 25,742 Army Reserve (United Kingdom), volunteer reserve perso ...
, Carr in a ''Times'' leader sided with the Greek Communists, leading to
Winston Churchill Sir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill (30 November 1874 – 24 January 1965) was a British statesman, military officer, and writer who was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1940 to 1945 (Winston Churchill in the Second World War, ...
to condemn him in a speech to the House of Commons. Carr claimed that the Greek EAM was the "largest organised party or group of parties in Greece", which "appeared to exercise almost unchallengeable authority", and called for Britain to recognise the EAM as the legal Greek government.Conquest, Robert "Agit-Prof" pp. 32–38 from ''The New Republic'', Volume 424, Issue # 4, 1 November 1999 p. 33 In contrast to his support for EAM/ELAS, Carr was strongly critical of the legitimate Polish government in exile and its
Armia Krajowa The Home Army (, ; abbreviated AK) was the dominant resistance movement in German-occupied Poland during World War II. The Home Army was formed in February 1942 from the earlier Związek Walki Zbrojnej (Armed Resistance) established in the ...
(Home Army) resistance organisation. In his leaders of 1944 on Poland, Carr urged that Britain break diplomatic relations with the London government and recognise the Soviet-sponsored Lublin government as the lawful government of Poland. In a May 1945 leader, Carr blasted those who felt that an Anglo-American "special relationship' would be the principal bulwark of peace. As a result of Carr's leaders, the ''Times'' became popularly known during World War II as the three-pence ''Daily Worker'' (the price of the ''Daily Worker'' being one penny). Commenting on Carr's pro-Soviet leaders, the British writer
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 ...
wrote in 1942 that "all the appeasers, e.g. Professor E. H. Carr, have switched their allegiance from Hitler to Stalin". Reflecting his disgust with Carr's leaders in the ''Times'', the British civil servant Sir Alexander Cadogan, the Permanent Undersecretary at the Foreign Office, wrote in his diary: "I hope someone will tie Barrington-Ward and Ted Carr together and throw them into the Thames." During a 1945 lecture series entitled ''The Soviet Impact on the Western World'', which was published as a book in 1946, Carr argued that "The trend away from individualism and towards totalitarianism is everywhere unmistakable", that
Marxism Marxism is a political philosophy and method of socioeconomic analysis. It uses a dialectical and materialist interpretation of historical development, better known as historical materialism, to analyse class relations, social conflict, ...
was the by far the most successful type of
totalitarianism Totalitarianism is a political system and a form of government that prohibits opposition from political parties, disregards and outlaws the political claims of individual and group opposition to the state, and completely controls the public s ...
as proved by Soviet industrial growth and the
Red Army The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army, often shortened to the Red Army, was the army and air force of the Russian Soviet Republic and, from 1922, the Soviet Union. The army was established in January 1918 by a decree of the Council of People ...
's role in defeating Germany, and that only the "blind and incurable ignored these trends".Laqueur, p. 131 During the same lectures, Carr called democracy in the Western world a sham, which permitted a capitalist ruling class to exploit the majority, and praised the Soviet Union as offering real democracy. One of Carr's leading associates, the British historian
R. W. Davies Robert William Davies (23 April 1925 – 13 April 2021), better known as R. W. Davies or Bob Davies, was a British historian, writer and professor of Soviet Economic Studies at the University of Birmingham. Obtaining his PhD in 1954, Davies wa ...
, was later to write that Carr's view of the Soviet Union as expressed in ''The Soviet Impact on the Western World'' was a rather glossy and idealised picture.


Cold War

In 1946, Carr started living with Joyce Marion Stock Forde, who was to remain his common law wife until 1964. In 1947, Carr was forced to resign from his position at Aberystwyth.Davies, "Edward Hallett Carr", p. 491 In the late 1940s, Carr started to become increasingly influenced by
Marxism Marxism is a political philosophy and method of socioeconomic analysis. It uses a dialectical and materialist interpretation of historical development, better known as historical materialism, to analyse class relations, social conflict, ...
. His name was on
Orwell's list In 1949, shortly before he died, the English author George Orwell prepared a list of notable writers and other people he considered to be unsuitable as possible writers for the anti-communist propaganda activities of the Information Research Dep ...
, a list of people which
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 ...
prepared in March 1949 for the
Information Research Department The Information Research Department (IRD) was a secret Cold War propaganda department of the British Foreign and Commonwealth Office, Foreign Office, created to publish anti-communist propaganda, including black propaganda, provide support and i ...
, a propaganda unit set up at the Foreign Office by the Labour government. Orwell considered these people to have pro-communist leanings and therefore to be inappropriate to write for the IRD. In 1948, Carr condemned the British acceptance of an American loan in 1946 as marking the effective end of British independence.Haslam, ''The Vices of Integrity'' p. 152 Carr went on to write that the best course for Britain was to seek neutrality in the Cold War and that "peace at any price must be the foundation of British policy".Haslam, ''The Vices of Integrity'' p. 153 Carr took a great deal of hope from the Soviet–Yugoslav split of 1948.Haslam
''The Vices of Integrity''
p. 151
In May–June 1951, Carr delivered a series of speeches on British radio entitled ''The New Society'', that advocated a commitment to mass democracy, egalitarian democracy, and "public control and planning" of the economy. Carr was a reclusive man whom few knew well, but his circle of close friends included
Isaac Deutscher Isaac Deutscher (; 3 April 1907 – 19 August 1967) was a Polish Marxist writer, journalist and political activist who moved to the United Kingdom before the outbreak of World War II. He is best known as a biographer of Leon Trotsky and Joseph S ...
,
A. J. P. Taylor Alan John Percivale Taylor (25 March 1906 – 7 September 1990) was an English historian who specialised in 19th- and 20th-century European diplomacy. Both a journalist and a broadcaster, he became well known to millions through his telev ...
,
Harold Laski Harold Joseph Laski (30 June 1893 – 24 March 1950) was an English political theorist and economist. He was active in politics and served as the chairman of the British Labour Party from 1945 to 1946 and was a professor at the London School of ...
and
Karl Mannheim Karl Mannheim (born Károly Manheim, 27 March 1893 – 9 January 1947) was a Hungarian sociologist and a key figure in classical sociology as well as one of the founders of the sociology of knowledge. Mannheim is best known for his book '' Id ...
. Carr was especially close to Deutscher. In the early 1950s, when Carr sat on the editorial board of
Chatham House The Royal Institute of International Affairs, also known as Chatham House, is a British think tank based in London, England. Its stated mission is "to help governments and societies build a sustainably secure, prosperous, and just world". It ...
, he attempted to block the publication of the manuscript that eventually became ''The Origins of the Communist Autocracy'' by
Leonard Schapiro Leonard Bertram Naman Schapiro (22 April 1908 – 2 November 1983) was a British scholar of the origins and development of the Soviet political system. He taught for many years at the London School of Economics, where he was Professor of Po ...
on the ground that the subject of
repression in the Soviet Union Repression in the Soviet Union was an ongoing characteristic of the state throughout the history of the Soviet Union, characterized by restricting the freedoms of the common man for the benefit of the communist state, albeit through a variety of ...
was not a serious topic for a historian.Haslam, ''The Vices of Integrity'' pp. 158–164 As interest in the subject of Communism grew, Carr largely abandoned
international relations International relations (IR, and also referred to as international studies, international politics, or international affairs) is an academic discipline. In a broader sense, the study of IR, in addition to multilateral relations, concerns al ...
as a field of study. In 1956, Carr did not comment on the Soviet suppression of the Hungarian Uprising, while at the same time condemning the
Suez War The Suez Crisis, also known as the Second Arab–Israeli War, the Tripartite Aggression in the Arab world and the Sinai War in Israel, was a British–French–Israeli invasion of Egypt in 1956. Israel invaded on 29 October, having done so w ...
. In 1966, Carr left Forde and married the historian Betty Behrens. That same year, Carr wrote in an essay that in India, where "liberalism is professed and to some extent practised, millions of people would die without American charity. In China, where liberalism is rejected, people somehow get fed. Which is the more cruel and oppressive regime?"Conquest, Robert "Agit-Prof" pp. 32–38 from ''The New Republic'', Volume 424, Issue # 4, 1 November 1999 p. 36 One of Carr's critics, the British historian
Robert Conquest George Robert Acworth Conquest (15 July 19173 August 2015) was a British and American historian, poet, novelist, and propagandist. He was briefly a member of the Communist Party of Great Britain but later wrote several books condemning commun ...
, commented that Carr did not appear to be familiar with recent Chinese history, because, judging from that remark, Carr seemed to be ignorant of the millions of Chinese who had starved to death during the
Great Leap Forward The Great Leap Forward was an industrialization campaign within China from 1958 to 1962, led by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). Party Chairman Mao Zedong launched the campaign to transform the country from an agrarian society into an indu ...
. In 1961, Carr published an anonymous and very favourable review of his friend A. J. P. Taylor's contentious book '' The Origins of the Second World War'', which caused much controversy. In the late 1960s, Carr was one of the few British professors to be supportive of the
New Left The New Left was a broad political movement that emerged from the counterculture of the 1960s and continued through the 1970s. It consisted of activists in the Western world who, in reaction to the era's liberal establishment, campaigned for freer ...
student protestors, whom, he hoped, might bring about a socialist revolution in Britain.Haslam, "We Need a Faith", pp. 36–39 from ''
History Today ''History Today'' is a history magazine. Published monthly in London since January 1951, it presents authoritative history to as wide a public as possible. The magazine covers all periods and geographical regions and publishes articles of tradit ...
'', Volume 33, August 1983 p. 39
Carr was elected to the
American Philosophical Society The American Philosophical Society (APS) is an American scholarly organization and learned society founded in 1743 in Philadelphia that promotes knowledge in the humanities and natural sciences through research, professional meetings, publicat ...
in 1967. In 1970, he was elected to the
American Academy of Arts and Sciences The American Academy of Arts and Sciences (The Academy) is one of the oldest learned societies in the United States. It was founded in 1780 during the American Revolution by John Adams, John Hancock, James Bowdoin, Andrew Oliver, and other ...
. Carr exercised wide influence in the field of Soviet studies and international relations. The extent of Carr's influence could be seen in the 1974 ''
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 ...
'' in his honour, entitled ''Essays in Honour of E.H. Carr'' ed.
Chimen Abramsky Chimen Abramsky (; 12 September 1916 – 14 March 2010) was emeritus professor of Jewish studies at University College London. His first name is pronounced ''Shimon''. Biography Abramsky was born in Minsk to a Lithuanian Jewish family on 12 S ...
and Beryl Williams. The contributors included Sir
Isaiah Berlin Sir Isaiah Berlin (6 June 1909 – 5 November 1997) was a Russian-British social and political theorist, philosopher, and historian of ideas. Although he became increasingly averse to writing for publication, his improvised lectures and talks ...
,
Arthur Lehning Paul Arthur Müller-Lehning (23 October 1899 – 1 January 2000) was a Dutch author, historian and anarchist. Biography Arthur Lehning was born in the Dutch city of Utrecht on 23 October 1899. He studied in Berlin, where he was first introduc ...
,
G. A. Cohen Gerald Allan Cohen ( ; 14 April 1941 – 5 August 2009) was a Canadian political philosophy, political philosopher who held the positions of Quain Professor, Quain Professor of Jurisprudence, University College London and Chichele Professor of ...
,
Monica Partridge Prof. Monica Partridge born Monica Agnes McMain (25 May 1915 – 2008) was a British linguist and Russian and Serbo-Croatian scholar who was a benefactor to the University of Nottingham. She was the first woman to be a Professor at her university ...
, Beryl Williams, Eleonore Breuning, D. C. Watt, Mary Holdsworth, Roger Morgan,
Alec Nove Alexander Nove, FRSE, FBA (born Aleksandr Yakovlevich Novakovsky; ; also published under Alec Nove; 24 November 1915 – 15 May 1994), a non-Marxist socialist, was Professor of Economics at the University of Glasgow and a noted authority on R ...
, John Erickson,
Michael Kaser Michael Kaser (2 May 1926 – 15 November 2021) was a British economist who specialised on Central and Eastern Europe and the USSR and its successor states. He was Reader Emeritus in Economics at the University of Oxford and Emeritus Fellow of ...
,
R. W. Davies Robert William Davies (23 April 1925 – 13 April 2021), better known as R. W. Davies or Bob Davies, was a British historian, writer and professor of Soviet Economic Studies at the University of Birmingham. Obtaining his PhD in 1954, Davies wa ...
,
Moshe Lewin Moshe "Misha" Lewin ( ; 7 November 1921 – 14 August 2010) was a scholar of Russian and Soviet history. He was a major figure in the school of Soviet studies which emerged in the 1960s and a socialist. Biography Moshe Lewin was born in 1921 in ...
,
Maurice Dobb Maurice Herbert Dobb (24 July 1900 – 17 August 1976) was an English economist at Cambridge University and a Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge. He is remembered as one of the pre-eminent Marxist economists of the 20th century. Dobb was high ...
, and Lionel Kochan.Ambramsky, C. & Williams, Beryl ''Essays in Honour of E.H. Carr'' pp. v–vi In a 1978 interview in ''
New Left Review The ''New Left Review'' is a British bimonthly journal, established in 1960, which analyses international politics, the global economy, social theory, and cultural topics from a leftist perspective. History Background As part of the emergin ...
'', Carr called Western economies "crazy" and doomed in the long run.Davies, "Edward Hallett Carr", p. 508 In a 1980 letter to his friend
Tamara Deutscher Tamara Deutscher (1 February 1913 – 7 August 1990) was a Polish-English writer and editor who fled from France in World War II and settled in London. She researched the leaders of Soviet Communism, together with her husband Isaac Deutscher. Sh ...
, Carr wrote that he felt that the government of
Margaret Thatcher Margaret Hilda Thatcher, Baroness Thatcher (; 13 October 19258 April 2013), was a British stateswoman who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1979 to 1990 and Leader of the Conservative Party (UK), Leader of th ...
had forced "the forces of Socialism" in Britain into a "full retreat". In the same letter to Deutscher, Carr wrote that "Socialism cannot be obtained through reformism, i.e. through the machinery of
bourgeois democracy Liberal democracy, also called Western-style democracy, or substantive democracy, is a form of government that combines the organization of a democracy with ideas of liberal political philosophy. Common elements within a liberal democracy are: ...
". Carr went on to decry disunity on the left. Although Carr regarded the abandonment of
Maoism Maoism, officially Mao Zedong Thought, is a variety of Marxism–Leninism that Mao Zedong developed while trying to realize a socialist revolution in the agricultural, pre-industrial society of the Republic of China (1912–1949), Republic o ...
in China in the late 1970s as a regressive development, he saw opportunities and wrote to his stockbroker in 1978 that "a lot of people, as well as the Japanese, are going to benefit from the opening up of trade with China. Have you any ideas?"


''History of Soviet Russia''

After the war, Carr was a fellow and tutor in politics at
Balliol College, Oxford Balliol College () is a constituent college of the University of Oxford. Founded in 1263 by nobleman John I de Balliol, it has a claim to be the oldest college in Oxford and the English-speaking world. With a governing body of a master and aro ...
, from 1953 to 1955, when he became a fellow of
Trinity College, Cambridge Trinity College is a Colleges of the University of Cambridge, constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Founded in 1546 by King Henry VIII, Trinity is one of the largest Cambridge colleges, with the largest financial endowment of any ...
, where he remained until his death in 1982. During this period he published most of '' A History of Soviet Russia'' as well as ''
What Is History? ''What Is History?'' is a 1961 non-fiction book by historian E. H. Carr on historiography. It discusses history, facts, the bias of historians, science, morality, individuals and society, and moral judgements in history. The book originated in ...
''. Towards the end of 1944, Carr decided to write a complete history of Soviet Russia from 1917 comprising all aspects of
social Social organisms, including human(s), live collectively in interacting populations. This interaction is considered social whether they are aware of it or not, and whether the exchange is voluntary or not. Etymology The word "social" derives fro ...
,
political Politics () is the set of activities that are associated with decision-making, making decisions in social group, groups, or other forms of power (social and political), power relations among individuals, such as the distribution of Social sta ...
and
economic history Economic history is the study of history using methodological tools from economics or with a special attention to economic phenomena. Research is conducted using a combination of historical methods, statistical methods and the Applied economics ...
to explain how the Soviet Union withstood the German invasion. The resulting work, his 14-volume ''History of Soviet Russia'' (14 vol., 1950–78), took the story up to 1929.Davies, "Edward Hallett Carr", p. 493 Like many others, Carr argued that the emergence of Russia from a backward peasant economy to a leading industrial power was the most important event of the 20th century.Hughes-Warrington, p. 25 The first part of the ''History of Soviet Russia'' comprised three volumes entitled ''The Bolshevik Revolution'', published in 1950, 1952, and 1953, and traced Soviet history from 1917 to 1922. The second part was originally intended to comprise three volumes called ''The Struggle for Power'', covering 1922–28, but Carr instead decided to publish a single volume labelled ''The Interregnum'' that covered the events of 1923–24, and another four volumes entitled ''Socialism in One Country'', which took the story up to 1926. Carr's final volumes in the series were entitled ''The Foundations of the Planned Economy'', and covered the years until 1929. Carr had planned to take the series up to
Operation Barbarossa Operation Barbarossa was the invasion of the Soviet Union by Nazi Germany and several of its European Axis allies starting on Sunday, 22 June 1941, during World War II. More than 3.8 million Axis troops invaded the western Soviet Union along ...
in 1941 and the Soviet victory of 1945, but died before he could complete the project. Carr's last book, 1982's ''The Twilight of the Comintern'', examined the response of the Comintern to fascism in 1930–1935. Although it was not officially a part of the ''History of Soviet Russia'' series, Carr regarded it as completing it. Another related book that Carr was unable to complete before his death, and was published posthumously in 1984, was ''The Comintern and the Spanish Civil War''. Another book that was not part of the ''History of Soviet Russia'' series, though closely related due to common research in the same archives, was Carr's 1951 ''German-Soviet Relations Between the Two World Wars, 1919–1939''. In it, Carr blamed British Prime Minister
Neville Chamberlain Arthur Neville Chamberlain (; 18 March 18699 November 1940) was a British politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from May 1937 to May 1940 and Leader of the Conservative Party (UK), Leader of the Conservative Party from ...
for the
Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact The Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact, officially the Treaty of Non-Aggression between Germany and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, and also known as the Hitler–Stalin Pact and the Nazi–Soviet Pact, was a non-aggression pact between Nazi Ge ...
of 1939.Carr, ''German-Soviet Relations'', p. 136 In 1955, a major scandal that damaged Carr's reputation as a historian of the Soviet Union occurred when he wrote the introduction to ''Notes for a Journal'', the supposed memoir of the former Soviet Foreign Commissar
Maxim Litvinov Maxim Maximovich Litvinov (; born Meir Henoch Wallach-Finkelstein; 17 July 1876 – 31 December 1951) was a Russian Empire, Russian revolutionary and prominent Soviet Union, Soviet statesman and diplomat who served as Ministry of Foreign Aff ...
that was shortly thereafter exposed as a
KGB The Committee for State Security (, ), abbreviated as KGB (, ; ) was the main security agency of the Soviet Union from 1954 to 1991. It was the direct successor of preceding Soviet secret police agencies including the Cheka, Joint State Polit ...
forgery. Carr was well known in the 1950s as an outspoken admirer of the Soviet Union. His friend and close associate, the British historian R. W. Davies, was to write that Carr belonged to the anti-Cold-War school of history, which regarded the Soviet Union as the major progressive force in the world, and the
Cold War The Cold War was a period of global Geopolitics, geopolitical rivalry between the United States (US) and the Soviet Union (USSR) and their respective allies, the capitalist Western Bloc and communist Eastern Bloc, which lasted from 1947 unt ...
as a case of American aggression against the Soviet Union. The volumes of Carr's ''History of Soviet Russia'' were received with mixed reviews. It was "described by supporters as 'Olympian' and 'monumental' and by enemies as a subtle apologia for Stalin".


''What Is History?''

Carr is also famous today for his work of
historiography Historiography is the study of the methods used by historians in developing history as an academic discipline. By extension, the term ":wikt:historiography, historiography" is any body of historical work on a particular subject. The historiog ...
, ''
What Is History? ''What Is History?'' is a 1961 non-fiction book by historian E. H. Carr on historiography. It discusses history, facts, the bias of historians, science, morality, individuals and society, and moral judgements in history. The book originated in ...
'' (1961), a book based upon his series of
G. M. Trevelyan George Macaulay Trevelyan (16 February 1876 – 21 July 1962) was an English historian and academic. He was a Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge, from 1898 to 1903. He then spent more than twenty years as a full-time author. He returned to th ...
lectures, delivered 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 ...
in January-March 1961. In this work, Carr argued that he was presenting a middle-of-the-road position between the
empirical Empirical evidence is evidence obtained through sense experience or experimental procedure. It is of central importance to the sciences and plays a role in various other fields, like epistemology and law. There is no general agreement on how t ...
view of history and
R. G. Collingwood Robin George Collingwood (; 22 February 1889 – 9 January 1943) was an English philosopher, historian and archaeologist. He is best known for his philosophical works, including ''The Principles of Art'' (1938) and the posthumously published ' ...
's
idealism Idealism in philosophy, also known as philosophical realism or metaphysical idealism, is the set of metaphysics, metaphysical perspectives asserting that, most fundamentally, reality is equivalent to mind, Spirit (vital essence), spirit, or ...
.Huges-Warrington, p. 26 Carr rejected as nonsense the empirical view of the historian's work being an accretion of "facts" that he or she has at their disposal. Carr divided facts into two categories: "facts of the past", that is, historical information that historians deem unimportant, and "historical facts", information that historians have decided is important. Carr contended that historians quite arbitrarily determine which of the "facts of the past" to turn into "historical facts", according to their own biases and agendas.


Contribution to the theory of international relations

Carr contributed to the foundation of what is now known as
classical realism Classical Realism is an artistic movement in the late-20th and early 21st century in which drawing and painting place a high value upon skill and beauty, combining elements of 19th-century neoclassicism and realism. Origins The term "Classic ...
in
international relations theory International relations theory is the study of international relations (IR) from a theoretical perspective. It seeks to explain behaviors and outcomes in international politics. The three most prominent School of thought, schools of thought are ...
. Carr's work studied history (work of
Thucydides Thucydides ( ; ; BC) was an Classical Athens, Athenian historian and general. His ''History of the Peloponnesian War'' recounts Peloponnesian War, the fifth-century BC war between Sparta and Athens until the year 411 BC. Thucydides has been d ...
and Machiavelli), and expressed a strong disagreement with what he referred to as
Idealism Idealism in philosophy, also known as philosophical realism or metaphysical idealism, is the set of metaphysics, metaphysical perspectives asserting that, most fundamentally, reality is equivalent to mind, Spirit (vital essence), spirit, or ...
. Carr juxtaposes realism and idealism.
Hans Morgenthau Hans Joachim Morgenthau (February 17, 1904 – July 19, 1980) was a German-American jurist and political scientist who was one of the major 20th-century figures in the study of international relations. Morgenthau's works belong to the tradition ...
, a fellow realist, wrote of Carr's work that it "provides a most lucid and brilliant exposure of the faults of contemporary political thought in the Western world... especially in so far as it concerns international affairs."


Selected works

*
Dostoevsky (1821–1881): A New Biography
', New York: Houghton Mifflin, 1931. *
The Romantic Exiles: A Nineteenth-Century Portrait Gallery
', London: Victor Gollancz, 1933. *
Karl Marx: A Study in Fanaticism
', London: Dent, 1934. *
Michael Bakunin
', London: Macmillan, 1937. *
International Relations Since the Peace Treaties
', London: Macmillan, 1937, revised edition 1940. * '' The Twenty Years' Crisis, 1919–1939: an Introduction to the Study of International Relations'', London: Macmillan, 1939, revised edition, 1946. * ''Britain: A Study of Foreign Policy from the Versailles Treaty to the Outbreak of War'', London; New York: Longmans, Green & Co., 1939. *
Conditions of Peace
', London: Macmillan, 1942. *
Nationalism and After
', London: Macmillan, 1945. *
The Soviet Impact on the Western World
', 1946. * '' A History of Soviet Russia'', London: Macmillan, 1950–1978. Collection of 14 volumes: ''The Bolshevik Revolution'' (3 volumes), ''The Interregnum'' (1 volume), ''Socialism in One Country'' (4 volumes), and ''The Foundations of a Planned Economy'' (6 volumes). * ''Studies in revolution'', London: Macmillan, Abingdon-on-Thames: Routlegde, 1950. * ''The New Society'', London: Macmillan, 1951. * ''German-Soviet Relations Between the Two World Wars, 1919–1939'', London: Geoffrey Cumberlege, 1952. * ''The October Revolution: Before and After'', New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1969. * ''
What Is History? ''What Is History?'' is a 1961 non-fiction book by historian E. H. Carr on historiography. It discusses history, facts, the bias of historians, science, morality, individuals and society, and moral judgements in history. The book originated in ...
'', London: Macmillan, 1961; revised edition ed. R.W. Davies, Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1986. * ''1917 Before and After'', London: Macmillan, 1969; American edition: ''The October Revolution Before and After'', New York: Knopf, 1969. * ''The Russian Revolution: From Lenin to Stalin (1917–1929)'', London: Macmillan, 1979. * ''From Napoleon to Stalin and Other Essays'', New York: St. Martin's Press, 1980. * ''The Twilight of the Comintern, 1930–1935'', London: Macmillan, 1982. * ''The Comintern and the Spanish Civil War'', New York: Pantheon, 1984.


Notes


References

* Abramsky, Chimen & Williams, Beryl J. (editors) ''Essays in Honour of E.H. Carr'', London: Macmillan, 1974, . * A. K. Review of ''Michael Bakunin'' pp. 244–245 from ''Books Abroad'', Volume 12, Issue # 2 Spring 1938. * Barber, John "Carr, Edward Hallett" pp. 191–192 from ''Great Historians of the Modern Age'' ed. Lucian Boia, New York: Greenwood Press, 1991. * Barghoorn, Frederick Review of ''The Interregnum, 1923–1924'' pp. 190–191 from ''Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science'', Volume 302, November 1955. * Beloff, Max "The Dangers of Prophecy" pp. 8–10 from ''History Today'', Volume 42, Issue # 9, September 1992. * Beloff, Max "Review: The Foundation of Soviet Foreign Policy" Review of ''The Bolshevik Revolution 1917–1923'' pp. 151–158 from ''Soviet Studies'', Volume 5, Issue # 2, October 1953. * Bernstein, Samuel Review of ''Michael Bakunin'' pages 289–291 from ''Political Science Quarterly'', Volume 54, Issue # 2, June 1939. * Call, M. S. Review of ''International Relations Since the Peace Treaties'' page 122 from ''World Affairs'', Volume 101, Issue # 2, June 1938. * Campbell, John Review of ''The Twilight of the Comintern, 1930–1935'' p. 1207 from ''Foreign Affairs'', Volume 61, Issue # 5, Summer 1983. * Carr, E. H. ''German-Soviet Relations Between the Two World Wars'', Harper & Row: New York, 1951, 1996 * Carr, E. H. ''The Twilight of the Comintern'' New York : Pantheon Books, 1982 * Carr, E. H. ''What Is History?'' London: Penguin Books, 1961, 1987. * Carsten, F. L. ''A History of Soviet Russia: Foundations of the Planned Economy, 1926–1929. Volume III, Parts 1–2'' pp. 141–144 from ''The Slavonic and East European Review'', Volume 56, Issue # 1, January 1978. * Carsten, F. L. Review of ''A History of Soviet Russia: Foundations of a Planned Economy, 1926–1929. Volume III, Part 3'' pp. 138–140 from ''The Slavonic and East European Review'', Volume 58, Issue # 1, January 1980. * Carsten, F. L. Review of ''The Twilight of Comintern, 1930–1935'' pp. 629–631 from ''The Slavonic and East European Review'', Volume 61, Issue # 4, October 1983. * Cobb, Adam "Economic Security: E.H. Carr and R.W. Cox-The Most Unlikely Bedfellows" from ''Cambridge Review of International Studies'', Volume 9, 1995. * Cobb, Adam "Carr, E.H." pp. 180–181 from ''The Encyclopedia of Historians and Historical Writing'' ed. Kelly Boyd, Volume 1, Chicago: Fitzroy Dearborn, 1999, . * Conolly, Violet Review of ''1917: Before and After'' pp. 735–736 from ''International Affairs'', Volume 45, Issue # 4, October 1969. * Conquest, Robert "Agit-Prof" pp. 32–38 from ''The New Republic'', Volume 424, Issue # 4, 1 November 1999. * Corbett, P. E. Review of ''The Twenty Years' Crisis'' pp. 237–238 from ''Pacific Affairs'', Volume 14, Issue # 2, June 1941. * Cox, Michael "Will the Real E. H. Carr Please Stand up?" pages 643–653 from ''International Affairs'', Volume 75, Issue # 3, July 1999. * Cox, Michael (editor) ''E.H. Carr: A Critical Appraisal'', London: Palgrave, 2000, . ** Cox, Michael "Introduction" pp. 1–20. ** Davies, R.W. "Carr's Changing Views of the Soviet Union" pp. 91–108. ** Halliday, Fred "Reason and Romance: The Place of Revolution in the Works of E.H. Carr" pp. 258–279. ** Haslam, Jonathan "E.H. Carr's Search for Meaning" pp. 21–35. ** Jones, Charles "'An Active Danger': Carr at The ''Times''" pp. 68–87. ** Porter, Brian "E.H. Carr-The Aberystwyth Years, 1936–1947" pp. 36–67. ** Stephanson, Anders "The Lessons of ''What Is History?''" pp. 283–303. ** Ticktin, Hillel "Carr, the Cold War, and the Soviet Union" pp. 145–161. ** White, Stephen "The Soviet Carr" pp. 109–124. ** Wilson, Peter "Carr and His Early Critics: Responses to ''The Twenty Years' Crisis, 1939–46''" pp. 165–197. * Davies, R. W. "Edward Hallett Carr, 1892–1982" pp. 473–511 from ''Proceedings of the British Academy'', Volume 69, 1983. * * Deutscher, Isaac "Review: The Bolshevik Revolution 1917–23: A Review Article" review of ''A History of Soviet Russia: Vol. I: The Bolshevik Revolution, 1917–23'' pp. 204–207 from ''International Affairs'', Volume 27, Issue # 2, April 1951. * Deutscher, Isaac "Mr E.H. Carr as a Historian of the Bolshevik Régime" pp. 91–110 from ''Heretics and Renegades and Other Essays'', Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill, 1969. * * Drinan, Patrick Review of ''The Russian Revolution: From Lenin to Stalin, 1917–1929'' pages 100–101 from ''Military Affairs'', Volume 44, Issue # 2, April 1980. * Evans, Graham "E. H. Carr and International Relations" pages 77–97 from ''British Journal of International Studies'', Volume 1, Issue # 2, July 1975. * F. D. Review of ''Nationalism and After'' pages 289–290 from ''World Affairs'', Volume 108, Issue # 4, December 1945. * Fox, William R. T. "E.H Carr and Political Realism: Vision and Revision" pp. 1–16 from ''Review of International Studies'', Volume 11, 1985. * Gathorne-Hardy, G. M. Review of ''International Relations between the Two World Wars (1919–1939)'' pp. 263–264 from ''International Affairs'', Volume 24, Issue # 2, April 1948. * Gellner, Ernest "Nationalism Reconsidered and E. H. Carr" pages 285–293 from ''Review of International Studies'', Volume 18, Issue # 4, October 1992. * Goldfischer, David "E. H. Carr: A 'Historical Realist' Approach for the Globalisation Era" pp. 697–717 from ''Review of International Studies'', Volume 28, Issue # 4 October 2002. * Griffins, Martin ''Fifty Key Thinkers in International Relations'', London: Routledge, 2000, . * Gruber, Helmut Review of ''Twilight of the Comintern, 1930–1935'' pp. 195–200 from ''New German Critique'', Volume 30, Autumn, 1983. * Gurian, Waldemar "Review: Soviet Problems" pages 251–254 from ''The Review of Politics'', Volume 13, Issue # 2, April 1951 * Gurian, Waldemar "Review: Soviet Foreign Policy" pages 118–120 from ''The Review of Politics'', Volume 16, Issue # 1, January 1954. * Hanak, Harry Review of ''A History of Soviet Russia Foundations of a Planned Economy 1926–1929, iii, Parts 1 and 2'' pages 644–646 from ''The English Historical Review'', Volume 93, Issue # 368, July 1978. * Hanak, Harry Review of ''A History of Soviet Russia Foundations of a Planned Economy 1926–1929'' pages 642–643 from ''The English Historical Review'', Volume 95, Issue # 376, July 1980. * Haslam, Jonathan "We Need a Faith: E.H. Carr, 1892–1982" pp. 36–39 from ''History Today'', Volume 33, Issue # 8, August 1983. * Haslam, Jonathan "E.H. Carr and the ''History of Soviet Russia''" Reviews of Reviews of ''The Russian Revolution from Lenin to Stalin 1917–1929'', ''From Napoleon to Stalin and Other Essays'' and ''The Twilight of Comintern 1930–35'' pp. 1021–1027 from ''Historical Journal'', Volume 26, Issue #4, December 1983. * Haslam, Jonathan ''The Vices Of Integrity: E.H. Carr, 1892–1982'', London; New York: Verso, 1999, . * Howe, Paul "The Utopian Realism of E.H. Carr" pp. 277–297 from ''Review of International Studies'', Volume 20, Issue No. 3, 1994. * Hudson, G. F. Review of ''A History of Soviet Russia. The Bolshevik Revolution 1917–1923. Volume I'' pp. 597–601 from ''The Slavonic and East European Review'', Volume 29, Issue # 73, June 1951. * Hughes-Warrington, Marnie ''Fifty Key Thinkers on History'', London: Routledge, 2000, . * Hunter, Holland Review of ''Foundations of a Planned Economy, 1926–1929 A History of Soviet Russia'' page 484 from ''Slavic Review'', Volume 38, Issue # 3, September 1979. * Karpovich, Michael Review of ''Michael Bakunin'' pp. 380–382 from ''The American Historical Review'', Volume 44, Issue # 2, January 1939. * Keep, John Review of ''Foundations of a Planned Economy, 1926–1929'' pp. 284–289 from ''Soviet Studies'', Volume 24, Issue # 2, October 1972. * Keeton, G. W. Review of ''The Twenty Years' Crisis, 1919–1939'' pp. 156–157 from ''The Modern Law Review'', Volume 4, Issue # 2, October 1940. * Kendall, Walter Review of ''The Comintern and the Spanish Civil War'' pp. 122–123 from ''International Affairs'', Volume 62, Issue # 1, Winter 1985–1986. * Kenez, Peter Review of ''The Russian Revolution: From Lenin to Stalin'' page 372 from ''Russian Review'', Volume 39, Issue # 3, July 1980. * Jackson, George Review of ''Twilight of the Comintern, 1930–1935'' pp. 815–817 from ''The American Historical Review'', Volume 89, Issue # 3, June 1984. * Jenkins, Keith ''On 'What Is History?': From Carr and Elton to Rorty and White'', London: Routledge, 1995, . * Johnston, Whittle "E. H. Carr's Theory of International Relations: A Critique" pp. 861–884 from ''Journal of Politics'', Volume 29, Issue # 4, 1967. * Jones, Charles ''E.H. Carr And International Relations: A Duty To Lie'', New York: Cambridge University Press, 1998, . * Labedz, Leopold "E.H. Carr: A Historian Overtaken by History" pp. 94–111 from ''Survey'' March 1988 Volume 30 Issue # 1/2. * Laqueur, Walter ''The Fate of the Revolution: Interpretations of Soviet History from 1917 to the Present'', New York: Scribner, 1987 . * Linklater, Andrew "The Transformation of Political Community: E. H. Carr, Critical Theory and International Relations" from ''Review of International Studies'', Volume 23, Issue # 3, July 1997. * Long, David & Wilson, Peter (editors), ''Thinkers of the Twenty Years' Crisis: Inter-War Idealism Reassessed.'' London: Oxford University Press, 1996. * W. N. M. Review of ''German-Soviet Relations between the Two World Wars, 1919–1939'' pp. 625–626 from ''The English Historical Review'', Volume 67, Issue # 265, October 1952. * Manning, C. A. W. "Review: ''Conditions of Peace'' by E. H. Carr" pp. 443–444 from ''International Affairs Review Supplement'', Volume 19, Issue # 8, June 1942. * Molloy, Seán "Dialectics and Transformation: Exploring the International Theory of E. H. Carr" pp. 279–306 from ''International Journal of Politics, Culture, and Society'', Volume 17, Issue # 2, Winter 2003. * Morgenthau, Hans "The Political Science of E. H. Carr" pages 127–134 from ''World Politics'' Volume 1, Issue # 1, October 1948. * Nove, Alec Review of ''A History of Soviet Russia: Socialism in One Country, Volume I'' pp. 552–555 from ''The Slavonic and East European Review'', Volume 37, Issue # 89, June 1959. * Nove, Alec Review of ''1917: Before and After'' pp. 451–453 from ''Soviet Studies'', Volume 22, Issue #3, January 1971. * Oldfield, A. "Moral Judgments in History" pp. 260–277 from ''History and Theory'', Volume 20, Issue #3, 1981. * Pethybridge, R. Review of ''A History of Soviet Russia Foundations of a Planned Economy, 1926–1929'' pages 942–943 from ''The English Historical Review'', Volume 88, Issue # 349, October 1973. * Pickles, W. Review of ''Studies in Revolution'' p. 180 from ''The British Journal of Sociology'', Volume 2, Issue # 2, June 1951. * Porter, Brian "E.H. Carr-The Aberystwyth Years, 1936–1947" pp. 36–67 from ''E.H. Carr A Critical Appraisal'' ed. Michael Cox, London: Palgrave, 2000 * Prince, J. R. Review of ''What Is History?'' pp. 136–145 from ''History and Theory'', Volume 3, Issue # 1, 1963. * Rauch, Georg von Review of ''The Bolshevik Revolution 1917–1923'' pages 376–380 from ''Historische Zeitschrift'', Volume 178, Issue #2, 1954. * Rauch, Georg von Review of ''A History of Soviet Russia'' pages 181–182 from ''Historische Zeitschrift'', Volume 193, Issue # 1 August 1961. * Reynolds, P. A. Review of ''German-Soviet Relations between the Two World Wars, 1919–39'' from ''International Affairs'', Volume 28, Issue # 4, October 1952. *
Rowse, A. L. Alfred Leslie Rowse (4 December 1903 – 3 October 1997) was a British historian and writer, best known for his work on Elizabethan England and books relating to Cornwall. Born in Cornwall and raised in modest circumstances, he was encourag ...
Review of ''The Twenty Years' Crisis, 1919–1939'' pp. 92–95 from ''The Economic Journal'', Volume 51, Issue # 201, April 1941. * Schlesinger, Rudolf Review of ''The Bolshevik Revolution 1917–1923'' pp. 389–396 from Soviet Studies, Volume 2, Issue # 4 April 1951. * Schlesinger, Rudolf "The Turning Point" from ''Soviet Studies'', Volume XI, Issue No. 4, April 1960. * Seton-Watson, Hugh ''The Bolshevik Revolution, Volume II'' pp. 569–572 from ''The Slavonic and East European Review'', Volume 31, Issue # 77, June 1953. * Smith, Keith. "The realism that did not speak its name: EH Carr's diplomatic histories of the twenty years' crisis." ''Review of International Studies'' 43.3 (2017): 475
online
* St. Clair-Sobell, James Review of ''A History of Soviet Russia: The Bolshevik Revolution 1917–1923'' pages 128–129 from ''International Journal'', Volume 8, Issue # 2, Spring 1953. * St. Clair-Sobell, James Review of ''A History of Soviet Russia: The Bolshevik Revolution 1917–1923'' pages 59–60 from ''International Journal'', Volume 9, Issue # 1, Winter 1954. * Struve, Gleb Review of ''Michael Bakunin'' pp. 726–728 from ''The Slavonic and East European Review'', Volume 16, Issue # 48, April 1938 * Trevor-Roper, Hugh "E.H. Carr's Success Story" pp. 69–77 from ''Encounter'', Volume 84, Issue No. 104, 1962. * Walsh. W. H. Review of ''What Is History?'' pp. 587–588 from ''The English Historical Review'', Volume 78, Issue # 308, July 1963. * Willetts, H. Review of ''A History of Soviet Russia'' Volume VI pages 266–269 from ''The Slavonic and East European Review'', Volume 40, Issue # 94, December 1961. * Wolfe, Bertram "Professor Carr's Wave of the Future Western Academics and Soviet Realities" from ''Commentray'', Volume XIX, Issue # 3, March 1955. * Woodward, E. L. Review of ''Karl Marx: A Study in Fanaticism'' page 721 from ''International Affairs'', Volume 13, Issue # 5, September – October 1934. * Review of ''The Conditions of Peace'' pages 164–167 from ''The American Economic Review'', Volume. 34, Issue # 1 March 1944.


External links

*
E. H. Carr: historian of the future




by
Richard J. Evans Sir Richard John Evans (born 29 September 1947) is a British historian of 19th- and 20th-century Europe with a focus on Germany. He is the author of eighteen books, including his three-volume '' The Third Reich Trilogy'' (2003–2008). Evans was ...

E.H. Carr Studies in Revolutions

E. H. Carr and Isaac Deutscher: A Very Special Relationship

E.H. Carr The Historian As A Marxist Partisan

Review of The Vices of Integrity


by Alun Munslow
E.H. Carr vs. Idealism: The Battle Rages On
by
John Mearsheimer John Joseph Mearsheimer (; born December 14, 1947) is an American political scientist and international relations scholar. He is R. Wendell Harrison Distinguished Service Professor in the University of Chicago. Mearsheimer is best known for dev ...

Papers of E. H. Carr
held at the
University of Birmingham The University of Birmingham (informally Birmingham University) is a Public university, public research university in Birmingham, England. It received its royal charter in 1900 as a successor to Queen's College, Birmingham (founded in 1825 as ...
Special Collections {{DEFAULTSORT:Carr, Edward Hallett 1892 births 1982 deaths Academics of Aberystwyth University Alumni of Trinity College, Cambridge British Marxist historians Commanders of the Order of the British Empire Fellows of Trinity College, Cambridge Historiographers British international relations scholars British Marxist journalists People educated at Merchant Taylors' School, Northwood Philosophers of history Political realists Scholars of nationalism Writers about the Soviet Union Writers from London Historians of Russia 20th-century British historians Fellows of the British Academy Members of the American Philosophical Society