The Philosophy, Politics and Religion of British Democracy: Maurice Cowling and Conservatism

336 Pages·2010·1.597 MB·English

by  Crowcroft, Robert(Editor);Green, S J D(Editor);Whiting, Robert(Editor)

Robert Crowcroft completed his Ph.D. at the University of Leeds in
2007, and currently teaches in the School of History. He is the author
of Attlee’s War, forthcoming with I.B.Tauris, and has published several
articles and essays, including ‘The “High Politics” of Labour Party
factionalism, 1950–55’, in Historical Research (2008).

S. J. D. Green is Reader in Modern British History at Leeds and fellow
of All Souls College, Oxford. He is author of Religion in the Age of
Decline: Organization and Experience in Industrial Yorkshire c.1870–1920
(Cambridge University Press, 1996) and The Passing of Protestant England:
Secularisation and Social Change c.1920–1960 (forthcoming, Cambridge
University Press).

Richard Whiting is Professor of Modern British History at the
University of Leeds and the author of The Labour Party and Taxation
(Cambridge University Press, 2001).
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ii
THE PHILOSOPHY,
POLITICS AND RELIGION
OF BRITISH DEMOCRACY
Maurice Cowling and
Conservatism

EDITED BY ROBERT CROWCROFT, S. J. D. GREEN
AND RICHARD WHITING

TAURIS ACADEMIC STUDIES
an imprint of
I.B.Tauris Publishers
·
LONDON NEW YORK
Published in 2010 by Tauris Academic Studies,
an imprint of I.B.Tauris & Co Ltd
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Distributed in the United States and Canada Exclusively by Palgrave Macmillan,
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Editorial matter and selection copyright © 2010 Robert Crowcroft, S. J. D. Green and
Richard Whiting. Individual chapters copyright © 2010 the contributors.

The rights of Robert Crowcroft, S. J. D. Green and Richard Whiting to be identified as
the editors of this work has been asserted by the editors in accordance with the
Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

All rights reserved. Except for brief quotations in a review, this book, or any part
thereof, may not be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or
transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying,
recording or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher.

International Library of Political Studies 32

ISBN: 978 1 84511 976 8

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A full CIP record for this book is available from the Library of Congress

Library of Congress catalog card: available

Camera-ready copy edited and supplied by
Oxford Publishing Services, Oxford
Printed and bound in India by Replika Press Pvt. Ltd.
Contents
Acronyms and Abbreviations vii
Acknowledgements viii
Introduction: The Significance of Cowling
Robert Crowcroft, S. J. D. Green and Richard Whiting 1
1. Maurice Cowling: A Brief Life
Jonathan Parry 13
PART I THE PHILOSOPHY OF HISTORY
2. Liberalism, Conservatism and Oakeshott in Cowling’s
Account of Public Doctrine
Kenneth Minogue 27
3. Subjectivity, Civility, Ecclesiasticality
James Alexander 42
4. Cowling and Liberalism
Michael Grenfell 65
PART II THE PRACTICE OF POLITICAL HISTORY
5. Herbert Butterfield and Maurice Cowling
Michael Bentley 85
6. Maurice Cowling and Modern British Political History
Philip Williamson 108
7. ‘High Politics’, Political Practice and the Labour Party
Robert Crowcroft 153
PART III RELIGION IN THE AGE OF SECULARIZATION
8. ‘As if Religion Mattered’: An Alternative Reading
of English Intellectual History since c.1840
S. J. D. Green 189
v
CONTENTS
9. The Anglican Mind of Maurice Cowling
Ian Harris 223
10. Conclusion: The Impact of Cowling
Robert Crowcroft, S. J. D. Green and Richard Whiting 270
Bibliography 297
Notes on Contributors 317
Index 319
vi
Acronyms and Abbreviations
1867 Maurice Cowling 1867: Disraeli, Gladstone and
Revolution (Cambridge University Press, 1967)
BSSLH Bulletin of the Society for the Study of Labour History
CE Maurice Cowling (ed.) Conservative Essays (London:
Cassell, 1978)
IH Maurice Cowling, The Impact of Hitler: British Politics
and British Policy, 1933–1940 (Cambridge University
Press, 1975)
IHR Institute of Historical Research
IL Maurice Cowling, The Impact of Labour, 1920–1924:
The Beginning of Modern British Politics (Cambridge
University Press, 1971)
LSE London School of Economics and Political Science
Mill Maurice Cowling, Mill and Liberalism (Cambridge
University Press, 2nd edn, 1990)
NLPS Maurice Cowling, The Nature and Limits of Political
Science (Cambridge University Press, 1963)
ODNB Oxford Dictionary of National Biography
OSB Order of St Benedict
PPD Michael Bentley (ed.) Public and Private Doctrine: Essays
in British History Presented to Maurice Cowling (Cambridge
University Press, 1993)
RPD I Maurice Cowling, Religion and Public Doctrine in Modern
England (Cambridge University Press, 1980)
RPD II Maurice Cowling, Religion and Public Doctrine in Modern
England: Assaults (Cambridge University Press, 1985)
RPD III Maurice Cowling, Religion and Public Doctrine in Modern
England: Accommodations (Cambridge University Press,
2001)
SPCK Society for the Propagation of Christian Knowledge
TLS Times Literary Supplement
vii
Acknowledgements
This collection of essays arose from a conference held at the
University of Leeds in January 2007, which explored the work of
Maurice Cowling. At that gathering we were provided with valuable
insights into the publishing of Cowling’s work from Richard Fisher of
Cambridge University Press, and we are indebted to him. We also wish
to thank the School of History and its then chairman, Professor John
Gooch, for the encouragement and financial support without which
the conference could not have taken place.
viii
Introduction:
The Significance of Cowling
Robert Crowcroft, S. J. D. Green and
Richard Whiting
The aim of this book is to introduce a new audience to the ideas of
one of the most significant British thinkers of the last half century.
Maurice Cowling, Fellow of Peterhouse, Cambridge, was rightly
famous – even infamous – in his lifetime as a gadfly political and
intellectual historian. But such notoriety ensured that his most serious
thoughts remained, at best, poorly understood and, at worst, unjustly
maligned. This is a pity. For in addition to his particular findings, he
was one of the most powerful critics of the most basic assumptions
that underpin modern British scholarship more widely. That fact
inevitably set him at odds with his profession. It has also undoubtedly
contributed to the subsequent neglect of his conclusions. Yet the bold
– and original – theses that he developed over many years, whether
about English history particularly or historiography more generally,
ought to be considered afresh. Indeed, there is a duty to consider them
afresh. Ensconced in academe for more than three decades, Cowling
forged a new and complex, conservative, framework for thinking both
about modern Britain and modern historical scholarship. To be sure,
he wrapped each of its layers in nuance so thick that they sometimes
seem impenetrable. However, the labour of discovery amply repays the
effort required. To be intellectually exposed to Cowling is to be
introduced to one of the great teachers of history. His challenges to
the prevailing – that is, liberal – intellectual consensus, to the way in
which modern politics is interpreted, and to the place of religion in
contemporary public life, were always provocative and remain radical.
1