Marwick, Arthur 1936-2006

OBITUARY NOTICE—

See index for CA sketch: Born February 29, 1936, in Edinburgh, Scotland; died September 27, 2006. Historian, educator, and author. A retired professor of history at Open University, Marwick was known for his books about the connections between war and social change, especially regarding twentieth-century conflicts. He earned an M.A. with first-class honors from the University of Edinburgh in 1957, and a B.Litt. from Balliol College, Oxford in 1960. Marwick was a lecturer in history at the University of Edinburgh through the 1960s and served as director of studies from 1964 to 1969. When Open University was established in 1969, he became its first professor and, from 1978 to 1984, its dean of arts. Marwick retired from teaching in 2001. As a scholar, he was known for his analyses of the effects of all-out war on society. He asserted, for example, that when wars involve only the upper classes they tend to have a divisive effect, but when all social classes must be employed to fight, the result includes more social justice. War has a profound effect on social institutions, personal assets, and culture, Warwick commented. Among his books are The Explosion of British Society, 1914-1962 (1963; revised in 1971 to include the rest of the 1960s), The Deluge: British Society and the First World War (1965), The Sixties: Cultural Revolution in Britain, France, Italy, and the United States (1998), and The Arts in the West since 1945 (2002).

OBITUARIES AND OTHER SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Times (London, England), October 10, 2006, p. 67.