David Kenneth Fieldhouse,FBA (7 June 1925 – 28 October 2018) was an English historian of theBritish Empire. Fieldhouse was born to missionary parents inMussoorie, northern India. He was sent to England for his education atDean Close School, Cheltenham, from 1938 to 1943. Fieldhouse then completed naval service, before reading history atThe Queen's College, Oxford.
Between 1981 and 1992, Fieldhouse held theVere Harmsworth Professorship of Imperial and Naval History at theUniversity of Cambridge. Arguably the world's "leading imperial economic historian"[1] he is most well known for his book,Economics and Empire, 1830–1914 (1973), which offered a trenchant account of how political and strategic factors, rather than economic impulses, comprised the primary motors of European imperial expansion.
Fieldhouse was a critic of the theories of imperialism put forward in the early 20th century byJohn A. Hobson andLenin. He argued that they used superficial arguments and weak evidence. Fieldhouse said that the "obvious driving force of British expansion since 1870" came from explorers, missionaries, engineers, and empire-minded politicians. They had little interest in financial investments. Hobson's approach was to say that faceless financiers manipulated everyone else. "The final determination rests with the financial power."[2] Lenin made the argument that capitalism was in its last stages and had been taken over by monopolists. They were no longer dynamic and sought to maintain profits by even more intensive exploitation of protected markets. Fieldhouse rejected these arguments as unfounded speculation.[3]
During the course of his career he held academic posts at theUniversity of Canterbury,Oxford University, andCambridge University. Upon his retirement from Cambridge in 1992 his former students and colleagues published afestschrift entitled,Managing the Business of Empire: Essays in Honour of David Fieldhouse.
Fieldhouse remained an active Emeritus Fellow ofJesus College, Cambridge in later life. He died in October 2018 at the age of 93.[4]
{{cite book}}:ISBN / Date incompatibility (help)| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
| Academics | |
| People | |
| Other | |
| People |  | ||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Colleges | |||||||||||||||
| Schools, faculties and departments |
| ||||||||||||||
| Student life |
| ||||||||||||||
| Sport | |||||||||||||||
| Affiliates | |||||||||||||||
| Museums | |||||||||||||||
| Related | |||||||||||||||
 | This article about a British historian or genealogist is astub. You can help Wikipedia byadding missing information. |
