Sir John (Jack) Harold Plumb (20 August 1911 – 21 October 2001) was a British historian, known for his books on British 18th-century history.

Biography

Plumb was born in

Leicester Leicester ( ) is a city status in the United Kingdom, city, Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority area, and the county town of Leicestershire in the East Midlands of England. It is the largest city in the East Midlands with a popula ...

on 20 August 1911. He was educated at

Alderman Newton's School Alderman Newton's Boys School was a school in Leicester, England. It was a grammar school then became a comprehensive school. The original school was opened in 1784, thanks to money bequeathed by a former Mayor of Leicester, Gabriel Newton. L ...

, Leicester, then at University College, Leicester (BA Lond. 1933) and finally at

Christ's College, Cambridge Christ's College is a Colleges of the University of Cambridge, constituent college of the University of Cambridge, England. The college includes the Master, the Fellows of the College, and about 450 undergraduate and 250 graduate students. The c ...

(PhD 1936). His doctoral thesis, on the social structure of the

House of Commons The House of Commons is the name for the elected lower house of the Bicameralism, bicameral parliaments of the United Kingdom and Canada. In both of these countries, the Commons holds much more legislative power than the nominally upper house of ...

at the time of

William III William III or William the Third may refer to: Kings * William III of Sicily () * William III of England and Ireland or William III of Orange or William II of Scotland (1650–1702) * William III of the Netherlands and Luxembourg (1817–1890) N ...

, was supervised by

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 ...

, the only time that Trevelyan is believed to have taken on that role. In 1939, Plumb was elected to the Ehrman Fellowship, which was a research fellowship at

King's College, Cambridge King's College, formally The King's College of Our Lady and Saint Nicholas in Cambridge, is a List of colleges of the University of Cambridge, constituent college of the University of Cambridge. The college lies beside the River Cam and faces ...

. During the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, Plumb worked in the codebreaking 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 ...

Bletchley Park Bletchley Park is an English country house and Bletchley Park estate, estate in Bletchley, Milton Keynes (Buckinghamshire), that became the principal centre of Allies of World War II, Allied World War II cryptography, code-breaking during the S ...

Hut 8 Hut 8 was a section in the Government Code and Cypher School (GC&CS) at Bletchley Park (the British World War II codebreaking station, located in Buckinghamshire) tasked with solving German naval (Kriegsmarine) Enigma messages. The section ...

and

Hut 4 Hut 4 was a wartime section of the Government Code and Cypher School at Bletchley Park tasked with the translation, interpretation and distribution of ''Kriegsmarine'' (German navy) messages deciphered by Hut 8. The messages were largely encryp ...

, later Block B. He headed a section working on a German Navy hand cipher, '' Reservehandverfahren''. In 1946, he became a Fellow and Tutor of Christ's College and a University Lecturer in History. In 1957, he was awarded the degree of

Doctor of Letters Doctor of Letters (D.Litt., Litt.D., Latin: ' or '), also termed Doctor of Literature in some countries, is a terminal degree in the arts, humanities, and social sciences. In the United States, at universities such as Drew University, the degree ...

for his work on 18th-century history, and in 1962, he was appointed Reader in Modern History at Cambridge University. He became Professor of Modern English History in the University in 1966. He served as Master of Christ's College from 1978 to 1982. He had a visiting professorship at

Columbia University Columbia University in the City of New York, commonly referred to as Columbia University, is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Churc ...

in 1960. He was elected a Fellow of the

British Academy The British Academy for the Promotion of Historical, Philosophical and Philological Studies is the United Kingdom's national academy for the humanities and the social sciences. It was established in 1902 and received its royal charter in the sa ...

in 1968 and knighted in 1982. Plumb was the European Advisory Editor for ''

Horizon The horizon is the apparent curve that separates the surface of a celestial body from its sky when viewed from the perspective of an observer on or near the surface of the relevant body. This curve divides all viewing directions based on whethe ...

'', and the advisory editor for history for

Penguin Books Penguin Books Limited is a Germany, German-owned English publishing, publishing house. It was co-founded in 1935 by Allen Lane with his brothers Richard and John, as a line of the publishers the Bodley Head, only becoming a separate company the ...

. In the 1960s he branched out as an editor, notably working on ''The History of Human Society'' series. Contributors to his books included other well-known historians like

Morris Bishop Morris Gilbert Bishop (April 15, 1893 – November 20, 1973) was an American scholar who wrote numerous books on Romance history, literature, and biography. His work also extended to North American exploration and beyond. Orphaned at 12, he ...

Jacob Bronowski Jacob Bronowski (18 January 1908 – 22 August 1974) was a Polish-British mathematician and philosopher. He is best known for developing a humanistic approach to science, and as the presenter and writer of the thirteen-part 1973 BBC television ...

, and

Maria Bellonci Maria Villavecchia Bellonci (30 November 1902 – 13 May 1986) was an Italian writer, historian and journalist, known especially for her biography of Lucrezia Borgia. She and Guido Alberti established the Strega Prize in 1947. Biography Bello ...

. Later Plumb worked with

Huw Wheldon Sir Huw Pyrs Wheldon, (7 May 1916 – 14 March 1986) was a Welsh broadcaster and BBC executive. Early life Huw Pyrs Wheldon was born on 7 May 1916 in Prestatyn, Flintshire (historic), Flintshire, Wales. He was educated at Friars School, Ban ...

on the BBC television series ''Royal Heritage'' about the British

Royal family A royal family is the immediate family of monarchs and sometimes their extended family. The term imperial family appropriately describes the family of an emperor or empress, and the term papal family describes the family of a pope, while th ...

and the

Royal Collection The Royal Collection of the British royal family is the largest private art collection in the world. Spread among 13 occupied and historic List of British royal residences, royal residences in the United Kingdom, the collection is owned by King ...

s first broadcast in 1977. An obituary in the ''New York Times'' observed that from the 23 books that he wrote between 1950 and 1973, Plumb became wealthy enough to "indulge his taste for fine food and wine;" to build a collection of rare porcelain; to drive a Rolls-Royce; and to live in a "16th-century rectory in Suffolk, a mill in the south of France and a Manhattan

pied-à-terre A ''pied-à-terre'' (, plural: ''pieds-à-terre''; French for "foot on the ground") is a small living unit, e.g., apartment or condominium, often located in a large city and not used as an individual's primary residence. The term implies use ...

in the

Carlyle Hotel The Carlyle Hotel is a luxury apartment hotel on the Upper East Side of Manhattan in New York City. Opened in 1930, the Art Deco hotel was designed by Sylvan Bien and Harry M. Prince, with interiors by Dorothy Draper. It was named after the S ...

Influence

Plumb is seen as mentor to a school of historians, having in common a wish to write accessible, broad-based work for the public: a generation of scholars that includes

Roy Porter Roy Sydney Porter (31 December 1946 – 3 March 2002) was a British historian known for his work on the history of medicine. He retired in 2001 as the director of the Wellcome Institute for the History of Medicine at University College London ...

Simon Schama Sir Simon Michael Schama ( ; born 13 February 1945) is an English historian and television presenter. He specialises in art history, Dutch history, Jewish history, and French history. He is a professor of history and art history at Columbia Uni ...

Linda Colley Dame Linda Jane Colley (born 13 September 1949 in Chester, England) is an expert on British, imperial and global history from 1700. She is Shelby M. C. Davis 1958 Professor of History at Princeton University and a long-term fellow in history at ...

David Cannadine Sir David Nicholas Cannadine (born 7 September 1950) is a British author and historian who specialises in modern history, Britain and the history of business and philanthropy. He is currently the Dodge Professor of History at Princeton Unive ...

and others who came to prominence in the 1990s. He was champion of a 'social history' in a wide sense; he backed this up with a connoisseur's knowledge of some fields of the fine arts, such as

Flemish painting Flemish painting flourished from the early 15th century until the 17th century, gradually becoming distinct from the painting of the rest of the Low Countries, especially the modern Netherlands. In the early period, up to about 1520, the painti ...

and

porcelain Porcelain (), also called china, is a ceramic material made by heating Industrial mineral, raw materials, generally including kaolinite, in a kiln to temperatures between . The greater strength and translucence of porcelain, relative to oth ...

. This approach rubbed off on those he influenced, while he clashed unrepentantly with other historians (notably Cambridge colleague

Geoffrey Elton Sir Geoffrey Rudolph Elton (born Gottfried Rudolf Otto Ehrenberg; 17 August 1921 – 4 December 1994) was a German-born British political and constitutional historian, specialising in the Tudor period. He taught at Clare College, Cambridge, and ...

) with a perspective from constitutional history whose emphasis was on more traditional scholarship. Friends from his early life,

C. P. Snow Charles Percy Snow, Baron Snow (15 October 1905 – 1 July 1980) was an English novelist and physical chemist who also served in several important positions in the British Civil Service and briefly in the UK government.''The Columbia Encyclop ...

and

William Cooper William Cooper may refer to: Business *William Cooper (accountant) (1826–1871), founder of Cooper Brothers * William Cooper (businessman) (1761–1840), Canadian businessman * William Cooper (co-operator) (1822–1868), English co-operator * Wil ...

, portrayed him in novels; he also is known to be the model for a character in an

Angus Wilson Sir Angus Frank Johnstone-Wilson (11 August 191331 May 1991) was an English novelist and short story writer. He was one of England's first openly gay authors. He was awarded the 1958 James Tait Black Memorial Prize for '' The Middle Age of Mrs ...

short story ''The Wrong Set''.

Works

*''England in the Eighteenth Century'' (1950), Pelican Books, London, *''Chatham'' (1953) *''Studies in Social History'' (1955) *''The First Four Georges'' (1956) *''Sir Robert Walpole'' (1956, 1960) in two volumes, sub-titled ''The Making of a Statesman'' and ''The King's Minister'' *''The Italian Renaissance'' (1961, 1987, 2001), American Heritage, New York, *''Men And Places'' (1963) *''Crisis in the Humanities'' (Ed., 1964) Penguin, Harmondsworth & Baltimore (responses to Snow's ''Two Cultures'') *''The Growth of Political Stability in England 1675–1725'' (1967) *''The Death of the Past'' (1969) *''In The Light of History'' (1972) *''The Commercialization of Leisure'' (1974) *''Royal Heritage: The Treasure of the British Crown'' (1977) *''New Light on the Tyrant George III: The Second George Rogers Clark Lecture'' (1978) *''The Making of a Historian'' (1988) essays *''The American Experience'' (1989) essays.

References

Sources

* Black, Jeremy, "Plumb, J.H." in * * *

Neil McKendrick Neil McKendrick MA FRHistS (born 28 July 1935) was the 40th Master of Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge. He is now a life fellow of the college. McKendrick was educated at Alderman Newton's School, Leicester, and Christ's College, Cambr ...

's obituary in the Guardian

*Simon Schama's obituary in the Independent

{{DEFAULTSORT:Plumb, J.H. 1911 births 2001 deaths Alumni of the University of Leicester Alumni of Christ's College, Cambridge Fellows of the British Academy Knights Bachelor Masters of Christ's College, Cambridge Members of the University of Cambridge faculty of history Bletchley Park people People educated at Alderman Newton's School, Leicester People from Leicester 20th-century British historians