Keith Thomas (historian)
Encyclopedia
Sir Keith Vivian Thomas is a Welsh historian, best known as the author of Religion and the Decline of Magic and Man and the Natural World.
. He was a Fellow of All Souls College, Oxford
from 1955 until 1957, when he was elected Fellow of St John's College
. He was Reader
in Modern History in the University of Oxford
1978-85, and Professor of Modern History in 1986, in which year he became President of Corpus Christi College
. He retired in 2000, at the statutory age of 67, and the following year he was once more elected Fellow of All Souls College
. He served for some time as Pro-Vice-Chancellor
of the University
and a Delegate to the University Press
. He was a consultant editor to the Dictionary of National Biography
.
He was a member of the Economic and Social Research Council
1985-90, and of the Reviewing Committee on Exports of Works of Art 1990-93, and, since 1992, of the Royal Commission on Historical Manuscripts. From 1991 until 1998, he was a Trustee of the National Gallery and since 1997 he has been Chairman of the British Library
Advisory Committee for Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences.
He is married to Lady Valerie Thomas and has two children.
in 1970 (Vice-President 1980-84) and a Fellow of the British Academy
in 1979 (President 1993-97). In 1983, he was elected a Foreign Honorary Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences
and in 1993, he was elected to the Academia Europaea
. He is also a Founding Fellow of the Learned Society of Wales
.
He is an Honorary Fellow of Balliol (1984) and St John's (1986), and Corpus Christi Colleges, Oxford, and of Cardiff University
(1995). He has been awarded honorary doctorates by University of Kent
(DLitt
1983), University of Wales
(DLitt
1987), Williams College
(LLD 1988), University of Sheffield
(LittD
1992), University of Cambridge
(LittD
1995), University of Hull
(DLitt
1995), University of Leicester
(DLitt
1996), University of Sussex
(DLitt
1996), Oglethorpe University
(LLD 1996), and University of Warwick
(DLitt
1998).
In 1988, HM The Queen
appointed him Knight Bachelor
and in 1991, he was honoured with the Ordine al Merito della Repubblica Italiana.
He is a distinguished supporter of the British Humanist Association
http://www.humanism.org.uk/about/people/distinguished-supporters.
Works edited
Works jointly edited
Biography
He was educated at Barry County Grammar School and Balliol College, OxfordBalliol College, Oxford
Balliol College , founded in 1263, is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England but founded by a family with strong Scottish connections....
. He was a Fellow of All Souls College, Oxford
All Souls College, Oxford
The Warden and the College of the Souls of all Faithful People deceased in the University of Oxford or All Souls College is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England....
from 1955 until 1957, when he was elected Fellow of St John's College
St John's College, Oxford
__FORCETOC__St John's College is a constituent college of the University of Oxford, one of the larger Oxford colleges with approximately 390 undergraduates, 200 postgraduates and over 100 academic staff. It was founded by Sir Thomas White, a merchant, in 1555, whose heart is buried in the chapel of...
. He was Reader
Reader (academic rank)
The title of Reader in the United Kingdom and some universities in the Commonwealth nations like Australia and New Zealand denotes an appointment for a senior academic with a distinguished international reputation in research or scholarship...
in Modern History in the University of Oxford
University of Oxford
The University of Oxford is a university located in Oxford, United Kingdom. It is the second-oldest surviving university in the world and the oldest in the English-speaking world. Although its exact date of foundation is unclear, there is evidence of teaching as far back as 1096...
1978-85, and Professor of Modern History in 1986, in which year he became President of Corpus Christi College
Corpus Christi College, Oxford
Corpus Christi College is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom...
. He retired in 2000, at the statutory age of 67, and the following year he was once more elected Fellow of All Souls College
All Souls College, Oxford
The Warden and the College of the Souls of all Faithful People deceased in the University of Oxford or All Souls College is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England....
. He served for some time as Pro-Vice-Chancellor
Pro-Vice-Chancellor
In a university, an assistant to a vice-chancellor is called a pro-vice-chancellor . These are sometimes teaching academics who take on additional responsibilities. Some of these responsibilities are in charge of Administration, Research and Development, Academic and Education affairs...
of the University
University of Oxford
The University of Oxford is a university located in Oxford, United Kingdom. It is the second-oldest surviving university in the world and the oldest in the English-speaking world. Although its exact date of foundation is unclear, there is evidence of teaching as far back as 1096...
and a Delegate to the University Press
Oxford University Press
Oxford University Press is the largest university press in the world. It is a department of the University of Oxford and is governed by a group of 15 academics appointed by the Vice-Chancellor known as the Delegates of the Press. They are headed by the Secretary to the Delegates, who serves as...
. He was a consultant editor to the Dictionary of National Biography
Dictionary of National Biography
The Dictionary of National Biography is a standard work of reference on notable figures from British history, published from 1885...
.
He was a member of the Economic and Social Research Council
Economic and Social Research Council
The Economic and Social Research Council is one of the seven Research Councils in the United Kingdom. It receives most of its funding from the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills, and provides funding and support for research and training work in social and economic issues, such as...
1985-90, and of the Reviewing Committee on Exports of Works of Art 1990-93, and, since 1992, of the Royal Commission on Historical Manuscripts. From 1991 until 1998, he was a Trustee of the National Gallery and since 1997 he has been Chairman of the British Library
British Library
The British Library is the national library of the United Kingdom, and is the world's largest library in terms of total number of items. The library is a major research library, holding over 150 million items from every country in the world, in virtually all known languages and in many formats,...
Advisory Committee for Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences.
He is married to Lady Valerie Thomas and has two children.
Awards and honours
He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Historical SocietyRoyal 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...
in 1970 (Vice-President 1980-84) and a Fellow of the British Academy
British Academy
The British Academy is the United Kingdom's national body for the humanities and the social sciences. Its purpose is to inspire, recognise and support excellence in the humanities and social sciences, throughout the UK and internationally, and to champion their role and value.It receives an annual...
in 1979 (President 1993-97). In 1983, he was elected a Foreign Honorary Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences
American Academy of Arts and Sciences
The American Academy of Arts and Sciences is an independent policy research center that conducts multidisciplinary studies of complex and emerging problems. The Academy’s elected members are leaders in the academic disciplines, the arts, business, and public affairs.James Bowdoin, John Adams, and...
and in 1993, he was elected to the Academia Europaea
Academia Europaea
Academia Europæa is a European non-governmental scientific academy founded in 1988. Its members are scientists and scholars who collectively aim to promote learning, education and research. It publishes European Review through Cambridge Journals....
. He is also a Founding Fellow of the Learned Society of Wales
Learned Society of Wales
The Learned Society of Wales is a society that exists to “celebrate, recognise, preserve, protect and encourage excellence in all of the scholarly disciplines”.The society was launched on 25 May 2010 at the National Museum of Wales...
.
He is an Honorary Fellow of Balliol (1984) and St John's (1986), and Corpus Christi Colleges, Oxford, and of Cardiff University
Cardiff University
Cardiff University is a leading research university located in the Cathays Park area of Cardiff, Wales, United Kingdom. It received its Royal charter in 1883 and is a member of the Russell Group of Universities. The university is consistently recognised as providing high quality research-based...
(1995). He has been awarded honorary doctorates by University of Kent
University of Kent
The University of Kent, previously the University of Kent at Canterbury, is a public research university based in Kent, United Kingdom...
(DLitt
Doctor of Letters
Doctor of Letters is a university academic degree, often a higher doctorate which is frequently awarded as an honorary degree in recognition of outstanding scholarship or other merits.-Commonwealth:...
1983), University of Wales
University of Wales
The University of Wales was a confederal university founded in 1893. It had accredited institutions throughout Wales, and formerly accredited courses in Britain and abroad, with over 100,000 students, but in October 2011, after a number of scandals, it withdrew all accreditation, and it was...
(DLitt
Doctor of Letters
Doctor of Letters is a university academic degree, often a higher doctorate which is frequently awarded as an honorary degree in recognition of outstanding scholarship or other merits.-Commonwealth:...
1987), Williams College
Williams College
Williams College is a private liberal arts college located in Williamstown, Massachusetts, United States. It was established in 1793 with funds from the estate of Ephraim Williams. Originally a men's college, Williams became co-educational in 1970. Fraternities were also phased out during this...
(LLD 1988), University of Sheffield
University of Sheffield
The University of Sheffield is a research university based in the city of Sheffield in South Yorkshire, England. It is one of the original 'red brick' universities and is a member of the Russell Group of leading research intensive universities...
(LittD
Doctor of Letters
Doctor of Letters is a university academic degree, often a higher doctorate which is frequently awarded as an honorary degree in recognition of outstanding scholarship or other merits.-Commonwealth:...
1992), University of Cambridge
University of Cambridge
The University of Cambridge is a public research university located in Cambridge, United Kingdom. It is the second-oldest university in both the United Kingdom and the English-speaking world , and the seventh-oldest globally...
(LittD
Doctor of Letters
Doctor of Letters is a university academic degree, often a higher doctorate which is frequently awarded as an honorary degree in recognition of outstanding scholarship or other merits.-Commonwealth:...
1995), University of Hull
University of Hull
The University of Hull, known informally as Hull University, is an English university, founded in 1927, located in Hull, a city in the East Riding of Yorkshire...
(DLitt
Doctor of Letters
Doctor of Letters is a university academic degree, often a higher doctorate which is frequently awarded as an honorary degree in recognition of outstanding scholarship or other merits.-Commonwealth:...
1995), University of Leicester
University of Leicester
The University of Leicester is a research-led university based in Leicester, England. The main campus is a mile south of the city centre, adjacent to Victoria Park and Wyggeston and Queen Elizabeth I College....
(DLitt
Doctor of Letters
Doctor of Letters is a university academic degree, often a higher doctorate which is frequently awarded as an honorary degree in recognition of outstanding scholarship or other merits.-Commonwealth:...
1996), University of Sussex
University of Sussex
The University of Sussex is an English public research university situated next to the East Sussex village of Falmer, within the city of Brighton and Hove. The University received its Royal Charter in August 1961....
(DLitt
Doctor of Letters
Doctor of Letters is a university academic degree, often a higher doctorate which is frequently awarded as an honorary degree in recognition of outstanding scholarship or other merits.-Commonwealth:...
1996), Oglethorpe University
Oglethorpe University
Oglethorpe University is a private liberal arts college in Brookhaven, Georgia, an inner suburb of Atlanta. It was chartered in 1835 and named after James Edward Oglethorpe, the state's founder.-History:...
(LLD 1996), and University of Warwick
University of Warwick
The University of Warwick is a public research university located in Coventry, United Kingdom...
(DLitt
Doctor of Letters
Doctor of Letters is a university academic degree, often a higher doctorate which is frequently awarded as an honorary degree in recognition of outstanding scholarship or other merits.-Commonwealth:...
1998).
In 1988, HM The Queen
Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom
Elizabeth II is the constitutional monarch of 16 sovereign states known as the Commonwealth realms: the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Jamaica, Barbados, the Bahamas, Grenada, Papua New Guinea, the Solomon Islands, Tuvalu, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Belize,...
appointed him Knight Bachelor
Knight Bachelor
The rank of Knight Bachelor is a part of the British honours system. It is the most basic rank of a man who has been knighted by the monarch but not as a member of one of the organised Orders of Chivalry...
and in 1991, he was honoured with the Ordine al Merito della Repubblica Italiana.
He is a distinguished supporter of the British Humanist Association
British Humanist Association
The British Humanist Association is an organisation of the United Kingdom which promotes Humanism and represents "people who seek to live good lives without religious or superstitious beliefs." The BHA is committed to secularism, human rights, democracy, egalitarianism and mutual respect...
http://www.humanism.org.uk/about/people/distinguished-supporters.
Publications
Works authored- 'History and anthropology', Past & Present 24 (1963), 3-24
- Religion and the decline of magic: studies in popular beliefs in sixteenth and seventeenth century England (London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1971; New York, Scribner 1971; Harmondsworth; London: Penguin, 1973; Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1978; London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1997)
- Rule and misrule in the schools of early modern England (Reading: University of Reading, 1976)
- Age and authority in early modern England (London: British Academy, 1976)
- The perception of the past in early modern England: the Creighton Trust lecture 1983, delivered before the University of London on Monday 21 November 1983 (London: University of London, 1983)
- Man and the natural world: changing attitudes in England, 1500-1800Man and the natural world changing attitudes in England 1500-1800Man and the natural world. Changing attitudes in England 1500-1800 by historian Keith Thomas was originally published in Great Britain by Allen Lane in 1983....
(London: Allen Lane, 1983; Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1984) - History and literature: the Ernest Hughes memorial lecture delivered at the College on 7 March 1988 (Swansea: University College of Swansea, 1988)
- 'Ways of doing cultural history', in Rik Sanders (ed.), Balans en perspectief van de Nederlandse cultuurgeschiedenis (Amsterdam: Rodopi, 1991)
- Changing conceptions of national biography: the Oxford DNB in historical perspective (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2005)
- The Ends of Life: Roads to Fulfilment in Early Modern England (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009) ISBN 0199247234; ISBN 978-0199247233
Works edited
- The Oxford book of work (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999)
Works jointly edited
- (ed. with Donald PenningtonD. H. PenningtonD. H. Pennington was an historian of 17th century England, which he taught at Manchester and Oxford universities. He was also a founding member of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament . His works include Europe in the Seventeenth Century, Members of the Long Parliament D. H. Pennington (1919-2007)...
) Puritans and revolutionaries: essays in seventeenth-century history presented to Christopher Hill (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1978) - (ed. with Andrew Adonis) Roy Jenkins: a retrospective (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004)
Sources and further information
- "Diary - LRB"
- Alan Macfarlane, People who have influenced me most: Keith Thomas
- http://www.jrank.org/literature/pages/5973/Sir-Keith-Thomas-%28Sir-Keith-Vivian-Thomas%29.html
- British Academy Fellowship
- Debrett's People of Today (12th edn, London: Debrett's Peerage, 1999), p. 1933