CRIMMINS, James E. 1953-

PERSONAL:

Born September 4, 1953, in Cardiff, Wales; citizenship: British and Canadian; son of James (a dock worker) and Mary (a homemaker and waitress) Crimmins; married Johanne Lepensée (an education officer), August 10, 1984; children: James Clifford, Dylan Thomas. Ethnicity: "Welsh." Education: University of Wales, University College of Swansea, B.A. (hons.), 1977, M.A., 1980; University of Western Ontario, Ph.D., 1984. Politics: New Democrat.

ADDRESSES:

Home—London, Ontario, Canada. Office—Huron University College, 1349 Western Rd., London, Ontario N6G 1H3, Canada.

CAREER:

Huron University College, London, Ontario, Canada, professor, 1987—, dean of arts and social science, 1994-99.

MEMBER:

International Society for Utilitarian Studies, Canadian Political Science Association, Canadian Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies.

AWARDS, HONORS:

Fellow, Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, 1985, and American Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies, 1989.

WRITINGS:

Secular Utilitarianism: Social Science and the Critique of Religion in the Thought of Jeremy Bentham, Oxford University Press (Oxford, England), 1990.

(Editor) Religion, Secularization, and Political Thought: Thomas Hobbes to J.S. Mill, Routledge (New York, NY), 1990.

(Editor) Utilitarians and Religion, Thoemmes Press (Bristol, England), 1998.

(Editor) Bentham's Auto-Icon, and Related Writings, Thoemmes Press (Bristol, England), 2002.

On Bentham, Wadsworth (Belmont, CA), 2004.

(Editor) The Death Penalty: Debates in Britain and the United States, 1725-1868, seven volumes, Thoemmes Continuum (Bristol, England), 2004.

(Editor of reprint and author of introduction) Basil Montagu, The Opinions of Different Authors upon the Punishment of Death, Selected by Basil Montagu, Esq. of Lincoln's Inn, Volume 1 (originally published 1809), Thoemmes Continuum (Bristol, England), 2004.

(Editor of reprint and author of introduction) Jeremy Bentham, Theory of Legislation, translated from French by Richard Hildreth, two volumes (originally published 1840), Thoemmes Continuum (Bristol, England), 2004.

(Editor, with Mark Spencer, and author of introduction) American Utilitarians and Critics, 1789-1914, four volumes, Thoemmes Continuum (Bristol, England), 2005.

Contributor to political science journals and other academic periodicals.

SIDELIGHTS:

James E. Crimmins told CA: "My interest in the history of political thought developed during my years at the University of Wales in Swansea, under the guidance of W.H. Greenleaf, John Rees, and Bruce Haddock. I have been fortunate over the years to receive five major research grants to support my work on utilitarian philosophy. Recently I have become interested in the transportation of utilitarian ideas across the Atlantic to North America, and in the varied reception they met in academe, political circles, and the legal profession. My best writing on these subjects occurs, I believe, when I encounter new topics and ideas for discussion and, invariably, my interpretations are substantially shaped by an understanding of the historical context(s) in which they are generated."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Choice, volume 28, review of Religion, Secularization, and Political Thought: Thomas Hobbes to J.S. Mill.

History of Political Thought, Volume 25, issue 3, review of On Bentham.

Religious Studies, June, 1999, Martin Stone, review of Utilitarians and Religion, p. 242.

Times Higher Education Supplement, August 24, 1990, review of Secular Utilitarianism: Social Science and the Critique of Religion in the Thought of Jeremy Bentham.