Charles Warren Hollister (November 2, 1930 – September 14, 1997) was an American

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 author and historian, "one of the best medieval generalists in the world" A professor emeritus, he was one of the founding members of the University of California Santa Barbara history department. He specialized in English medieval history

England in the Middle Ages

England in the Middle Ages concerns the history of England during the Medieval period — from the end of Roman rule in Britain through to the Early Modern period...

, especially studies that emphasized the interrelationship of England within the Anglo-Norman

Anglo-Norman

The Anglo-Normans were mainly the descendants of the Normans who ruled England following the Norman conquest by William the Conqueror in 1066. A small number of Normans were already settled in England prior to the conquest...

 realm and the development of administrative kingship

Hollister was born in Los Angeles

Los Ángeles

Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...

, the son of Nathan and Carrie (Cushman) Hollister. He graduated with honors from Harvard University

Harvard University

Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...

 in 1951, served in the United States Air Force

United States Air Force

The United States Air Force is the aerial warfare service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the American uniformed services. Initially part of the United States Army, the USAF was formed as a separate branch of the military on September 18, 1947 under the National Security Act of...

 during the Korean War

Korean War

The Korean War was a conventional war between South Korea, supported by the United Nations, and North Korea, supported by the People's Republic of China , with military material aid from the Soviet Union...

, and received his Ph.D from UCLA in 1958.

Hollister spent his academic career at the University of California, Santa Barbara

University of California, Santa Barbara

The University of California, Santa Barbara, commonly known as UCSB or UC Santa Barbara, is a public research university and one of the 10 general campuses of the University of California system. The main campus is located on a site in Goleta, California, from Santa Barbara and northwest of Los...

, officially retiring in 1994 He was elected as a fellow of the Medieval Academy of America

Medieval Academy of America

The Medieval Academy of America is the largest organization in the United States promoting excellence in the field of medieval studies. It was founded in 1925 and is based in Cambridge, Massachusetts...

 in 1981 and was also a fellow of the Royal Historical Society

Royal Historical Society

The Royal Historical Society was founded in 1868. The premier society in the United Kingdom which promotes and defends the scholarly study of the past, it is based at University College London...

 and the Medieval Academy of Ireland. In May 1982 he and his graduate students founded the Charles Homer Haskins Society, dedicated to the study of Viking, Anglo-Saxon, Anglo-Norman, and early Angevin history. His research centered on the career of Henry I of England

Henry I of England

Henry I was the fourth son of William I of England. He succeeded his elder brother William II as King of England in 1100 and defeated his eldest brother, Robert Curthose, to become Duke of Normandy in 1106...

; his biography of that monarch, set back at a late stage by the loss of his manuscript and note cards and his entire research library in the Santa Barbara fire of 1990, was incomplete at the time of his death but subsequently finished by his doctoral student Amanda Clark Frost and published by Yale University Press

Yale University Press

Yale University Press is a book publisher founded in 1908 by George Parmly Day. It became an official department of Yale University in 1961, but remains financially and operationally autonomous....

, 2001.

Publications

1. Anglo-Saxon Military Institutions on the Eve of the Norman Conquest, 1962 (Triennial Book Prize of the Conference on British Studies)
2. The Military Organization of Norman England (Oxford,) 1965
3. Medieval Europe: A Short History (eight editions)
4. The Making of England to 1399 (seven editions)
5. Study Guide, Volume I for Hollister/McGee/Stokes' The West Transformed: A History of Western Civilization
6. Roots of the Western Tradition
7. Henry I
8. The Rise and Development of Western Civilization
9. Odysseus to Columbus: Synopsis of Classical and Mediaeval History
10. Monarchy, Magnates and Institutions in the Anglo-Norman World