J. H. Hexter: Difference between revisions

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{{Short description|American historian (1910–1996)}}

'''Jack H. Hexter''' ([[May 25]], [[1910]]–[[December 8]], [[1996]]) was an [[USA|American]] historian, a specialist in [[Tudor period|Tudor]] and [[seventeenth century]] [[British history]], and well known for his comments on [[historiography]].

{{More citations needed|date=December 2023}}

{{infobox person

|name=J. H. Hexter

|birth_name=Jack H. Hexter

|birth_date={{birth date|1910|5|25}}

|birth_place=[[Memphis, Tennessee]], U.S.

|death_date={{death date and age|1996|12|8|1910|5|25}}

|death_place=[[St. Louis]], [[Missouri]], U.S.

|education=[[University of Cincinnati]] ([[Bachelor of Arts|BA]])<br>[[Harvard University]] ([[Master of Arts|MA]], [[Doctor of Philosophy|PhD]])

|occupation=Historian

|spouse={{marriage|Ruth Mullin|1942}}

|children=4

}}

'''Jack H. Hexter''' (May 25, 1910 – December 8, 1996) was an American historian, a specialist in [[Tudor period|Tudor]] and seventeenth century [[British history]], and well known for his comments on [[historiography]]. Hexter was a member of both the [[American Academy of Arts and Sciences]] and the [[American Philosophical Society]].<ref>{{Cite web |title=Jack H. Hexter |url=https://www.amacad.org/person/jack-h-hexter |access-date=2022-05-17 |website=American Academy of Arts & Sciences |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=APS Member History |url=https://search.amphilsoc.org/memhist/search?creator=Jack+H.+Hexter&title=&subject=&subdiv=&mem=&year=&year-max=&dead=&keyword=&smode=advanced |access-date=2022-05-17 |website=search.amphilsoc.org}}</ref>

==Early career==

Hexter was born in [[Memphis, Tennessee]] and was awarded an BA by the [[University of Cincinnati]] in [[1931]].

Jack Hexter was born in [[Memphis, Tennessee]], and was awarded a BA by the [[University of Cincinnati]] in 1931.<ref name=Guggenheim>{{cite web |title=J. H. Hexter – John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation… |url=https://www.gf.org/fellows/j-h-hexter/ |website=www.gf.org}}</ref><ref name=Davis1997>{{cite web |last1=Davis |first1=R. W. |title=J.H. Hexter (1910–96) – AHA |url=https://www.historians.org/perspectives-article/j-h-hexter-1910-96-march-1997/ |website=www.historians.org |access-date=24 November 2024 |date=1 March 1997}}</ref> He received his MA (1933) and PhD (1937) from [[Harvard University]].<ref name=Davis1997/> His research interests encompassed both political and intellectual history, as witnessed by his first two books, one a history of the parliamentary conflict leading up to the Civil War, and the other a nuanced textual interpretation of [[Thomas More|Thomas More's]] [[Utopia (More book)|''Utopia'']].<ref name=Davis1997/>

==Scholarship and historiography==

He is noted for his distinction between "splitters" and "lumpers" of historical material, and his [[1975]] attack on [[Christopher Hill (historian)|Christopher Hill]] (as a "lumper" of selectively read sources). This was a part of a larger attack on the [[Marxist]] reading of [[Stuart]] history from the [[1970s]] in which he was prominent, alongside [[Derek Hirst]]. This continued from a position he had earlier assumed, in some articles from the 1950s and with [[Hugh Trevor-Roper]]. His ultimate self-definition was seen as [[whiggish]]. He specialized in grand narratives focusing on political events. For Hexter, the [[English Civil War]] was no accident, but was rather the defence of traditional English liberties against an aggressive Crown.

Hexter coined the term [[tunnel history]].<ref name=Breen1972>{{cite journal |last1=Breen |first1=T. H. |title=English Origins and New World Development: The Case of the Covenanted Militia in Seventeenth-Century Massachusetts |journal=Past & Present |date=1972 |issue=57 |pages=74–96 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/650417 |issn=0031-2746|url-access=subscription}}</ref><ref>Ostrowski, Donald (ed.), [https://academic.oup.com/cornell-scholarship-online/book/40415/chapter-abstract/347401072?redirectedFrom=fulltext 'Introduction'], Who Wrote That? Authorship Controversies from Moses to Sholokhov (Ithaca, NY, 2020; online edn, Cornell Scholarship Online, 21 Jan. 2021), https://doi.org/10.7591/cornell/9781501749704.003.0001, accessed 24 Nov. 2024.</ref>

Hexter's scholarly reputation probably owes as much to his historiographical critiques as to his body of research. He is noted for his distinction between [[lumpers and splitters|"splitters" and "lumpers"]] of historical material, and his 1975 attack on [[Christopher Hill (historian)|Christopher Hill]] (as a "lumper" of selectively read sources).<ref name="Palmer1979">{{cite journal |last1=Palmer |first1=William G. |title=The Burden of Proof: J.H. Hexter and Christopher Hill |journal=Journal of British Studies |date=1979 |volume=19 |issue=1 |pages=122–129 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/175685 |issn=0021-9371|url-access=subscription}}</ref> More to Hexter's fancy was the "splitter" who saw his responsibility to the full range of particulars and the ambiguity of historical sources. "Lumping" was the tendency that, according to Hexter, threatened to bind historians to overreaching generalizations, of which he suggested [[Marxism]] was the most typical and intellectually pernicious. Nonetheless, his essay appeared to argue that both tendencies (analysis and synthesis) were intellectually necessary.

He had a position at [[Washington University in St. Louis]] from [[1957]] until [[1964]], and at [[Yale University]] from [[1964]] to [[1978]], becoming Charles Stillé Professor. He then returned to [[Washington University in St. Louis|Washington University]], where he was named John M. Olin Professor Emeritus of the History of Freedom at Washington University, retiring in [[1990]]. The Yale Center for Parliamentary History was founded in [[1966]] under his directorship. He was the founder editor of the [[Stanford University]] ''Making of Modern Freedom'' series of books.

Hexter married Ruth Mullin in [[1942]]; they had four children.

==Storm over the gentry==

He died in [[Saint Louis, Missouri|St. Louis]].

{{see also|Storm over the gentry}}

This attack continued from a position he had earlier assumed, in his response in the late 1950s to a debate between [[Lawrence Stone]] and [[Hugh Trevor-Roper]]. Stone, along with [[R.H. Tawney]], explained the origins of the [[English Civil War]] by positing that an increasingly well-off and ambitious [[gentry]] had, over the course of many years, destabilized the English state in which power had traditionally been divided between the aristocracy and the king. Trevor-Roper inverted this theory, arguing that in fact the Civil War was caused in part by court gentry who had fallen on bad times.

Hexter's contribution, puckishly titled "The Storm over the Gentry" and originally published in a popular magazine, contends that both theses are undermined by their authors' social determinism which causes them to overlook the ordinary business of the House of Commons. Hexter maintained that the overlooked group, the rural magnates, the wealthier of the country gentry, wielded the most influence in the House of Commons and had brought no real interest in revolution. To the contrary, their experience was in practical management and governance, and for the most part they did not act out of simple self-interest. The Civil War needs, therefore, to be seen as the story of how such solid, service-minded and economically comfortable men were persuaded to resist the King, and not as any particular group's economically motivated power grab.

His ultimate self-definition was overtly, unabashedly, and often polemically [[whiggish]]. For Hexter, the English Civil War was to be seen as the defence of traditional English liberties against an aggressive Crown. This position contrasted in the 1970s with the [[Historical revisionism|revisionist]] views of [[Conrad Russell]] and others who disputed both the uniqueness of the English Civil War and its connection with ideas of liberty. However, inasmuch as the revisionists were also explicitly anti-Marxist, their stance owed a great deal to Hexter's critiques. Russell in particular echoed Hexter's emphasis on continuity in English political values, Hexter's distinction between the Civil War and the subsequent Revolution, and Hexter's belief that contingencies better explained the coming of the War, while rejecting Hexter's view that Parliament was acting out of a clear-cut sense of constitutional obligation and embracing instead the view that religious conflicts and practical problems in the composite monarchy were more decisive.

Hexter in 1978 wrote a bitter historiographical review in which he attacked younger scholars for reducing the analysis of the Civil War to an essentially amoral struggle for power (socio-economic for the Marxists; religious, political and fiscal for the revisionists), which he argued was too dismissive of the intrinsic moral strength of Parliament's position. He thus declared his preference for the 19th-century narrative by [[Samuel Rawson Gardiner]] over the new interpretation, and, true to form, even adopted an exaggerated Whig-style argument: that one should recognize and accept the principles of the Parliamentary rebels because these ideas about freedom were the very foundation for our modern sense of political liberty.

==Hexter on Braudel==

Another famous Hexterian intervention in [[historiography]] is his article "[[Fernand Braudel]] and the Monde Braudellien", which can be seen as a more appreciative, temperate, and intellectually sophisticated antecedent to Hexter's attack on Hill. Here, Hexter dissected Braudel's vast "geohistory", ''[[Fernand Braudel#La Méditerranée|La Mediteranée]]'', marvelling at the organization of the [[Annales School]] but pointing out the ironic tensions between the Annales' rigorous, collaborative, scientific institutional ethos and its leader's passionate, highly personal, often factually inaccurate or poorly sourced book (for which much of the intellectual labor was carried out from memory while Braudel was in a [[prisoner-of-war camp]]). The article also reveals Hexter's satirical touch, as, in its first section, Hexter mimics the quantitative bent of the Annales scholars, representing their output in a series of graphs and tables.

==Academic positions==

HeHis hadmost aprominent positionacademic positions were at [[Queens College of the City University of New York]] from 1938 until 1957, [[Washington University in St. Louis]] from [[1957]] until [[1964]], and at [[Yale University]] from [[1964]] to [[1978]], becoming Charles Stillé Professor. The Yale Center for Parliamentary History was founded in 1966 under his directorship. He then returned to [[Washington University in St. Louis|Washington University]], where he founded the [[Center for the History of Freedom]], and was named John M. Olin Professor Emeritus of the History of Freedom at Washington University, retiring in [[1990]]. The YaleIn Centerthis forstead, Parliamentaryhe Historyserved was founded in [[1966]] under his directorship. He wasas the founder and editor of the [[Stanford University Press]] ''Making of Modern Freedom'' series of books.

==Family==

Hexter married uth Mullin in 1942; they had four children. He died of congestive heart failure in [[St. Louis, Missouri]] after suffering heart ailments for much of his adult life.<ref name="Saxon1996">{{cite news |last1=Saxon |first1=Wolfgang |title=J. Hexter, 86, Who Began History of Freedom |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1996/12/16/arts/j-hexter-86-who-began-history-of-freedom.html |access-date=24 November 2024 |work=New York Times |date=16 December 1996 |page=13}}</ref>

==Works==

*''The Reign of King Pym'' (1941)<ref>{{cite journal|doi=10.1111/1750-0206.12544 |title=King Pym and his 'Happy, Scrappy Jester' |date=2021 |last1=Roberts |first1=Stephen K. |journal=Parliamentary History |volume=40 |pages=81–92 |s2cid=234078302 }}</ref> {{LCCN|a41004164}}

*''More's Utopia: The Biography of an Idea'' (1952) {{cite book|title=1976 edition|isbn=0837189470}}

*''Storm Over the Gentry: The Tawney-Trevor-Roper Controversy'' (1958)

*''Reappraisals in History: New Views on History and Society in Early Modern Europe'' (1961)

*''Utopia, Thomas More'' (19851965) edited with [[Edward Surtz]], vol. 4 of the Yale Complete Edition of [[Thomas More]]

*''The Judaeo-Christian Tradition'' (1966)

*''The Traditions of the Western World: Antiquity Through the Early Modern period'' (vol. 11967) (1982)

** {{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2PsAIYb-6RoC | title=The Traditions of the Western World (Abridged) | isbn=9780819111807 | date=1980 | publisher=University Press of America }}

*''Europe Since 1500'' (1971) with [[Richard Pipes|R. Pipes]] and [[Anthony Molho|A. MolkoMolho]] {{isbn|0060428147}} {{LCCN|72147642}}

*''The History Primer'' (1971)

*''Doing History'' (1971) {{isbn|0253318203}} {{LCCN|70165049}}

*''The visionVision of politicsPolitics on the eveEve of the Reformation: More, Machiavelli, and Seyssel'' (1973)

*''On Historians: Reappraisals of the Masters of Modern History'' (1979) {{isbn|0674634268}} {{LCCN|78016635}}<ref name=Kirschner1980>{{cite journal |last1=Kirschner |first1=Julius |title=Review of On Historians |journal=Ethics |date=1980 |volume=90 |issue=4 |pages=596–602 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/2380458 |issn=0014-1704|url-access=subscription}}</ref>

*''The Monarchy of France, [[Claude De Seyssel]]'' (1981) translator with Michael Sherman, editor Donald R. Kelley

*''The Traditions of the Western World: Antiquity through the Early Modern period'' (vol. 1) (1982)

*''Parliament and libertyLiberty from the reignReign of Elizabeth to the English Civil War'' (1992) editor

==References==

{{Reflist}}

==Further reading==

*The Reign of King Pym (1941)

*[[William Herbert Dray|Dray, W. H.]] "''J. H. Hexter, Neo-Whiggism and Early Stuart Historiography"'' pages 133-149 from ''History and Theory'', Volume 26, 1987.

*Reappraisals in History: New Views on History and Society in Early Modern Europe (1961)

*MalamountMalament, Barbara (editor). [https://books.google.com/books?id=YsPnAAAAIAAJ ''After the Reformation: Essays in Honour of J.H. HexterHester''], Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1980. {{isbn|0-7190-0805-0}}

*Utopia, Thomas More (1985) edited with [[Edward Surtz]], vol. 4 of the Yale Complete Edition of [[Thomas More]]

*The Judaeo-Christian Tradition (1966)

*Europe Since 1500 (1971) with [[R. Pipes]] and [[A. Molko]]

*The History Primer (1971)

*Doing History (1971)

*The vision of politics on the eve of the Reformation: More, Machiavelli, and Seyssel (1973)

*On Historians: Reappraisals of the Masters of Modern History (1979)

*The Monarchy of France, [[Claude De Seyssel]] (1981) translator with Michael Sherman, editor Donald R. Kelley

*The Traditions of the Western World: Antiquity Through the Early Modern period (vol. 1) (1982)

*Parliament and liberty from the reign of Elizabeth to the English Civil War (1992) editor

{{Authority control}}

==Reference==

*Dray, W.H. "J.H Hexter, Neo-Whiggism and Early Stuart Historiography" pages 133-149 from ''History and Theory'', Volume 26, 1987.

*Malamount, Barbara (editor). ''After the Reformation: Essays in Honour of J.H. Hexter'', Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1980.

[[Category{{DEFAULTSORT:American historians|Hexter, J.H]] H.}}

[[Category:1910 births|Hexter, J.H]]

[[Category:1996 deaths|Hexter, J.H]]

[[Category:Historiographers]]
[[Category:Washington University in St. Louis faculty|Hexter, J.H.]]

[[Category:Yale University faculty|Hexter, J.H.]]

[[Category:Harvard University alumni|Hexter, J.H.]]

[[Category:University of Cincinnati alumni]]

[[Category:20th-century American historians]]

[[Category:American male non-fiction writers]]

[[Category:People from Memphis, Tennessee]]

[[Category:20th-century American male writers]]

[[Category:Members of the American Philosophical Society]]