Tristram Hunt
Encyclopedia
Tristram Julian William Hunt, FRHistS MP
(born 31 May 1974) is a British politician, historian
, broadcaster
and newspaper columnist
, who is currently the Member of Parliament
for Stoke-on-Trent Central. He also teaches and lectures on Modern British History at Queen Mary, University of London
in Mile End, East London. He has written several books and appeared as broadcaster for history programmes on television. Hunt is a regular writer for The Guardian
and The Observer
.
Hunt is a member of the Labour Party
, and after supporting the party as an activist for several years and working as a member of the party's staff, he entered the political arena professionally, becoming an MP at the 2010 general election.
in 1972-3. After attending University College School
(UCS), Tristram Hunt read History at Trinity College
, Cambridge and the University of Chicago
, and was for a time an Associate Fellow of the Centre for History and Economics at King's College, Cambridge
. His PhD, Civic thought in Britain, c.1820– c.1860, was taken at Cambridge and was awarded in 2000.
and is on the board of the New Local Government Network
(2004). He has made many appearances on television, presenting programmes on the English Civil War
(2002), the theories of Isaac Newton
, and the rise of the middle class
, and makes regular appearances on BBC Radio 4
, having presented broadcasts on such topics as the history of the signature
.
Hunt's main area of expertise is urban history
, specifically during the Victorian era
, and it is this subject which provided him with his second book, Building Jerusalem. This book, covering such notable Victorian minds as John Ruskin
, Joseph Chamberlain
and Thomas Carlyle
received many favourable reviews, but some criticism, notably a scathing review in the Times Literary Supplement by J. Mordaunt Crook ('The Future was Bromley', TLS, 13 August 2004). In 2006, Hunt wrote Making our Mark, a publication celebrating CPRE's eightieth anniversary. He then completed a BBC series entitled The Protestant Revolution, examining the influence of Protestantism
on British and international attitudes to work and leisure for broadcast on BBC Four
.
Turning to biography, Hunt wrote The Frock-Coated Communist: The Revolutionary Life of Friedrich Engels
(U.S. title: Marx's General: The Revolutionary Life of Friedrich Engels), published in May 2009. For the book, Hunt researched at German and Russian libraries and begins with an account of the author's own trip to Engels, Russia. The biography received a number of favourable reviews, including one from Roy Hattersley
, the former deputy leader of the Labour party, in The Observer. In 2007 he was a judge for the Samuel Johnson Prize
, the winner being Imperial Life in the Emerald City
by Rajiv Chandrasekaran
.
at Millbank Tower
in the 1997 general election; he also worked at the Party's headquarters during the following 2001 general election
; during the 2005 general election
he supported Oona King
's campaign in Bethnal Green.
In the summer of 2007 he failed to be selected for the safe Labour seat of Liverpool West Derby, where Stephen Twigg
was selected instead, and in 2009 for the safe seat of Leyton and Wanstead.
Hunt was selected to stand for Stoke-on-Trent Central on 1 April 2010. Because the candidacy was filled just before the election, the shortlist was drawn up by Labour’s ruling National Executive Committee
selection panel, with none on the shortlist local to Stoke-on-Trent. This led to the secretary of the Constituency Labour Party
, Gary Elsby, standing as an independent candidate against Hunt in protest. Despite the controversy of being "parachuted in" to the district Hunt was elected with 38.8% of the vote. The closest fought contest in the constituency in decades, he still boasted a majority of 5,566 over his nearest rival.
and has a column with the British Sunday paper The Observer
. He wrote an essay in the New Statesman
comparing Cromwell's Republic
to the Islamic fundamentalism
dominant in Afghanistan
at that time.
Speaking of his constituency he said "The key to helping manufacturing is investing in education and schools and also selling Stoke nationally and internationally as a place to invest." He also criticized the local council's decision to "to try to obliterate the past out and sort of 'cleanse', removing the old bottle ovens and other relics". He instead believed that the city's reputation as a quality pottery maker should be exploited. He also stated he could better serve his constituency if he were to become a government minister.
. His brother-in-law is the author Giles Foden
.
Member of Parliament
A Member of Parliament is a representative of the voters to a :parliament. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, the term applies specifically to members of the lower house, as upper houses often have a different title, such as senate, and thus also have different titles for its members,...
(born 31 May 1974) is a British politician, historian
Historian
A historian is a person who studies and writes about the past and is regarded as an authority on it. Historians are concerned with the continuous, methodical narrative and research of past events as relating to the human race; as well as the study of all history in time. If the individual is...
, broadcaster
Presenter
A presenter, or host , is a person or organization responsible for running an event. A museum or university, for example, may be the presenter or host of an exhibit. Likewise, a master of ceremonies is a person that hosts or presents a show...
and newspaper columnist
Columnist
A columnist is a journalist who writes for publication in a series, creating an article that usually offers commentary and opinions. Columns appear in newspapers, magazines and other publications, including blogs....
, who is currently the Member of Parliament
Member of Parliament
A Member of Parliament is a representative of the voters to a :parliament. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, the term applies specifically to members of the lower house, as upper houses often have a different title, such as senate, and thus also have different titles for its members,...
for Stoke-on-Trent Central. He also teaches and lectures on Modern British History at Queen Mary, University of London
Queen Mary, University of London
Queen Mary, University of London is a public research university located in London, United Kingdom and a constituent college of the federal University of London...
in Mile End, East London. He has written several books and appeared as broadcaster for history programmes on television. Hunt is a regular writer for The Guardian
The Guardian
The Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...
and The Observer
The Observer
The Observer is a British newspaper, published on Sundays. In the same place on the political spectrum as its daily sister paper The Guardian, which acquired it in 1993, it takes a liberal or social democratic line on most issues. It is the world's oldest Sunday newspaper.-Origins:The first issue,...
.
Hunt is a member of the Labour Party
Labour Party (UK)
The Labour Party is a centre-left democratic socialist party in the United Kingdom. It surpassed the Liberal Party in general elections during the early 1920s, forming minority governments under Ramsay MacDonald in 1924 and 1929-1931. The party was in a wartime coalition from 1940 to 1945, after...
, and after supporting the party as an activist for several years and working as a member of the party's staff, he entered the political arena professionally, becoming an MP at the 2010 general election.
Early life and education
Hunt is the son of Lord Hunt of Chesterton, who was leader of the Labour Group on Cambridge City CouncilCambridge City Council
Cambridge City Council may refer to:* Cambridge City Council, England* Cambridge City Council, Massachusetts, USA* Cambridge, Ontario City Council, Canada...
in 1972-3. After attending University College School
University College School
University College School, generally known as UCS, is an Independent school charity situated in Hampstead, north west London, England. The school was founded in 1830 by University College London and inherited many of that institution's progressive and secular views...
(UCS), Tristram Hunt read History at Trinity College
Trinity College, Cambridge
Trinity College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Trinity has more members than any other college in Cambridge or Oxford, with around 700 undergraduates, 430 graduates, and over 170 Fellows...
, Cambridge and the University of Chicago
University of Chicago
The University of Chicago is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois, USA. It was founded by the American Baptist Education Society with a donation from oil magnate and philanthropist John D. Rockefeller and incorporated in 1890...
, and was for a time an Associate Fellow of the Centre for History and Economics at King's College, Cambridge
King's College, Cambridge
King's College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge, England. The college's full name is "The King's College of our Lady and Saint Nicholas in Cambridge", but it is usually referred to simply as "King's" within the University....
. His PhD, Civic thought in Britain, c.1820– c.1860, was taken at Cambridge and was awarded in 2000.
Career as a historian
Hunt was a fellow of the Institute for Public Policy ResearchInstitute for Public Policy Research
The IPPR is the leading progressive think-tank in the UK. It produces research and policy ideas committed to upholding values of social justice, democratic reform and environmental sustainability. IPPR is based in London and IPPR North has branches in Newcastle and Manchester.It was founded in...
and is on the board of the New Local Government Network
New Local Government Network
The New Local Government Network is a United Kingdom think tank which was founded in 1996. Its director is Simon Parker, previously of Demos, the Institute for Government and the Confederation of British Industry....
(2004). He has made many appearances on television, presenting programmes on the English Civil War
English Civil War
The English Civil War was a series of armed conflicts and political machinations between Parliamentarians and Royalists...
(2002), the theories of Isaac Newton
Isaac Newton
Sir Isaac Newton PRS was an English physicist, mathematician, astronomer, natural philosopher, alchemist, and theologian, who has been "considered by many to be the greatest and most influential scientist who ever lived."...
, and the rise of the middle class
Middle class
The middle class is any class of people in the middle of a societal hierarchy. In Weberian socio-economic terms, the middle class is the broad group of people in contemporary society who fall socio-economically between the working class and upper class....
, and makes regular appearances on BBC Radio 4
BBC Radio 4
BBC Radio 4 is a British domestic radio station, operated and owned by the BBC, that broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes, including news, drama, comedy, science and history. It replaced the BBC Home Service in 1967. The station controller is currently Gwyneth Williams, and the...
, having presented broadcasts on such topics as the history of the signature
Signature
A signature is a handwritten depiction of someone's name, nickname, or even a simple "X" that a person writes on documents as a proof of identity and intent. The writer of a signature is a signatory. Similar to a handwritten signature, a signature work describes the work as readily identifying...
.
Hunt's main area of expertise is urban history
Urban History
Urban history is a field of history that examines the historical nature of cities and towns, and the process of urbanization. The approach tends to be multidisciplinary, crossing boundaries into fields like social history, architectural history, urban sociology, urban geography and archaeology.At...
, specifically during the Victorian era
Victorian era
The Victorian era of British history was the period of Queen Victoria's reign from 20 June 1837 until her death on 22 January 1901. It was a long period of peace, prosperity, refined sensibilities and national self-confidence...
, and it is this subject which provided him with his second book, Building Jerusalem. This book, covering such notable Victorian minds as John Ruskin
John Ruskin
John Ruskin was the leading English art critic of the Victorian era, also an art patron, draughtsman, watercolourist, a prominent social thinker and philanthropist. He wrote on subjects ranging from geology to architecture, myth to ornithology, literature to education, and botany to political...
, Joseph Chamberlain
Joseph Chamberlain
Joseph Chamberlain was an influential British politician and statesman. Unlike most major politicians of the time, he was a self-made businessman and had not attended Oxford or Cambridge University....
and Thomas Carlyle
Thomas Carlyle
Thomas Carlyle was a Scottish satirical writer, essayist, historian and teacher during the Victorian era.He called economics "the dismal science", wrote articles for the Edinburgh Encyclopedia, and became a controversial social commentator.Coming from a strict Calvinist family, Carlyle was...
received many favourable reviews, but some criticism, notably a scathing review in the Times Literary Supplement by J. Mordaunt Crook ('The Future was Bromley', TLS, 13 August 2004). In 2006, Hunt wrote Making our Mark, a publication celebrating CPRE's eightieth anniversary. He then completed a BBC series entitled The Protestant Revolution, examining the influence of Protestantism
Protestantism
Protestantism is one of the three major groupings within Christianity. It is a movement that began in Germany in the early 16th century as a reaction against medieval Roman Catholic doctrines and practices, especially in regards to salvation, justification, and ecclesiology.The doctrines of the...
on British and international attitudes to work and leisure for broadcast on BBC Four
BBC Four
BBC Four is a British television network operated by the British Broadcasting Corporation and available to digital television viewers on Freeview, IPTV, satellite and cable....
.
Turning to biography, Hunt wrote The Frock-Coated Communist: The Revolutionary Life of Friedrich Engels
Friedrich Engels
Friedrich Engels was a German industrialist, social scientist, author, political theorist, philosopher, and father of Marxist theory, alongside Karl Marx. In 1845 he published The Condition of the Working Class in England, based on personal observations and research...
(U.S. title: Marx's General: The Revolutionary Life of Friedrich Engels), published in May 2009. For the book, Hunt researched at German and Russian libraries and begins with an account of the author's own trip to Engels, Russia. The biography received a number of favourable reviews, including one from Roy Hattersley
Roy Hattersley
Roy Sydney George Hattersley, Baron Hattersley is a British Labour politician, author and journalist from Sheffield. He served as Deputy Leader of the Labour Party from 1983 to 1992.-Early life:...
, the former deputy leader of the Labour party, in The Observer. In 2007 he was a judge for the Samuel Johnson Prize
Samuel Johnson Prize
The Samuel Johnson Prize for Non-Fiction is one of the most prestigious prizes for non-fiction writing. It was founded in 1999 following the demise of the NCR Book Award and based on an anonymous donation. The prize is named after Samuel Johnson...
, the winner being Imperial Life in the Emerald City
Imperial Life in the Emerald City
Imperial Life in the Emerald City: Inside Iraq's Green Zone is a 2006 book by Rajiv Chandrasekaran that takes a critical look at the civilian leadership of the American reconstruction project in Iraq...
by Rajiv Chandrasekaran
Rajiv Chandrasekaran
Rajiv Chandrasekaran is an Indian-American journalist. He is currently the National Editor of The Washington Post, where he has worked since 1994...
.
Political career
Hunt worked for the Labour PartyLabour Party (UK)
The Labour Party is a centre-left democratic socialist party in the United Kingdom. It surpassed the Liberal Party in general elections during the early 1920s, forming minority governments under Ramsay MacDonald in 1924 and 1929-1931. The party was in a wartime coalition from 1940 to 1945, after...
at Millbank Tower
Millbank Tower
Millbank Tower is a high skyscraper in the City of Westminster at Millbank, on the banks of the River Thames in London, in the United Kingdom. The Tower was constructed in 1963 for Vickers and was originally known as Vickers Tower. It was designed by Ronald Ward and Partners and built by John...
in the 1997 general election; he also worked at the Party's headquarters during the following 2001 general election
United Kingdom general election, 2001
The United Kingdom general election, 2001 was held on Thursday 7 June 2001 to elect 659 members to the British House of Commons. It was dubbed "the quiet landslide" by the media, as the Labour Party was re-elected with another landslide result and only suffered a net loss of 6 seats...
; during the 2005 general election
United Kingdom general election, 2005
The United Kingdom general election of 2005 was held on Thursday, 5 May 2005 to elect 646 members to the British House of Commons. The Labour Party under Tony Blair won its third consecutive victory, but with a majority of 66, reduced from 160....
he supported Oona King
Oona King
Oona Tamsyn King, Baroness King of Bow is a Baroness and Member of the House of Lords, and former Chief Diversity Officer of Channel 4. She previously had served as a Labour Party Member of Parliament for Bethnal Green and Bow from 1997 until 2005, when she was defeated by Respect candidate George...
's campaign in Bethnal Green.
In the summer of 2007 he failed to be selected for the safe Labour seat of Liverpool West Derby, where Stephen Twigg
Stephen Twigg
Stephen Twigg is a British Labour Party politician who has been the Labour Co-operative Member of Parliament for Liverpool West Derby since 2010. He previously served as the Member of Parliament for Enfield Southgate from 1997 to 2005, when he lost his seat. He came to national prominence in 1997...
was selected instead, and in 2009 for the safe seat of Leyton and Wanstead.
Hunt was selected to stand for Stoke-on-Trent Central on 1 April 2010. Because the candidacy was filled just before the election, the shortlist was drawn up by Labour’s ruling National Executive Committee
National Executive Committee
The National Executive Committee or NEC is the chief administrative body of the UK Labour Party. Its composition has changed over the years, and includes representatives of affiliated trade unions, the Parliamentary Labour Party and European Parliamentary Labour Party, Constituency Labour Parties,...
selection panel, with none on the shortlist local to Stoke-on-Trent. This led to the secretary of the Constituency Labour Party
Constituency Labour Party
A Constituency Labour Party is an organisation of members of the British Labour Party who live in a particular UK parliamentary constituency in England, Scotland and Wales. The Labour Party in Northern Ireland has, since February 2009, been organised as a province-wide Constituency Labour Party...
, Gary Elsby, standing as an independent candidate against Hunt in protest. Despite the controversy of being "parachuted in" to the district Hunt was elected with 38.8% of the vote. The closest fought contest in the constituency in decades, he still boasted a majority of 5,566 over his nearest rival.
Political views
Hunt is a Trustee of the Heritage Lottery FundHeritage Lottery Fund
The Heritage Lottery Fund is a fund established in the United Kingdom under the National Lottery etc. Act 1993. The Fund opened for applications in 1994. It uses money raised through the National Lottery to transform and sustain the UK’s heritage...
and has a column with the British Sunday paper The Observer
The Observer
The Observer is a British newspaper, published on Sundays. In the same place on the political spectrum as its daily sister paper The Guardian, which acquired it in 1993, it takes a liberal or social democratic line on most issues. It is the world's oldest Sunday newspaper.-Origins:The first issue,...
. He wrote an essay in the New Statesman
New Statesman
New Statesman is a British centre-left political and cultural magazine published weekly in London. Founded in 1913, and connected with leading members of the Fabian Society, the magazine reached a circulation peak in the late 1960s....
comparing Cromwell's Republic
Commonwealth of England
The Commonwealth of England was the republic which ruled first England, and then Ireland and Scotland from 1649 to 1660. Between 1653–1659 it was known as the Commonwealth of England, Scotland and Ireland...
to the Islamic fundamentalism
Islamic fundamentalism
Islamic fundamentalism is a term used to describe religious ideologies seen as advocating a return to the "fundamentals" of Islam: the Quran and the Sunnah. Definitions of the term vary. According to Christine L...
dominant in Afghanistan
Afghanistan
Afghanistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, is a landlocked country located in the centre of Asia, forming South Asia, Central Asia and the Middle East. With a population of about 29 million, it has an area of , making it the 42nd most populous and 41st largest nation in the world...
at that time.
Speaking of his constituency he said "The key to helping manufacturing is investing in education and schools and also selling Stoke nationally and internationally as a place to invest." He also criticized the local council's decision to "to try to obliterate the past out and sort of 'cleanse', removing the old bottle ovens and other relics". He instead believed that the city's reputation as a quality pottery maker should be exploited. He also stated he could better serve his constituency if he were to become a government minister.
Personal life
He is married with one son and two daughters. He lives in LondonLondon
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
. His brother-in-law is the author Giles Foden
Giles Foden
Giles Foden is an English author best known for his award-winning novel The Last King of Scotland .-Biography:Giles Foden was born in Warwickshire in 1967. His family moved to Malawi in 1971 where he was raised...
.
Titles from birth
- Tristram Hunt (1974-2000)
- The Hon. Dr. Tristram Hunt (2000-10)
- The Hon. Dr. Tristram Hunt MP (2010-present)
External links
- Article archive at The GuardianThe GuardianThe Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...