George Hugh Nicolas Seton-Watson, CBE, FBA (15 February 1916 – 19 December 1984) was a British historian and political scientist specialising in Russia.
Hugh Seton-Watson | |
|---|---|
| Born | George Hugh Nicolas Seton-Watson 15 February 1916 London |
| Died | 19 December 1984 (aged 68) |
| Nationality | British |
| Alma mater | New College, Oxford |
| Occupation | Historian |
| Years active | 1938–1984 |
| Employer | University of London |
| Known for | Russia and Eastern Europe Nationalism |
| Notable work | The Decline of Imperial Russia, 1855–1914 The Russian Empire, 1801–1917 Nations and States: an Enquiry into the Origins of Nations and the Politics of Nationalism |
| Spouse | Mary Seton-Watson (née Rokeling) |
| Children | Ursula Sims-Williams Catriona Seton-Watson Lucy Seton-Watson |
| Parent | Robert William Seton-Watson |
| Notes | |
Early life
editSeton-Watson was one of the two sons of Robert William Seton-Watson, the activist and historian. He was educated at Winchester College and New College, Oxford, graduating in 1938 with First Class Honours in 'Modern Greats' (Philosophy, Politics and Economics).[3]
Wartime activities
editAfter working for the British Foreign Office in Belgrade and Bucharest at the start of the Second World War, Seton-Watson joined the British Special Operations Executive. Interned by the Italians after the fall of Yugoslavia to the Axis in 1941, Seton-Watson was repatriated to Britain and later posted to the British special forces in Cairo, where he remained until 1944. In January 1944, he moved to Istanbul, where he performed intelligence activities among the refugees coming from the Balkans.[4]
Academic career
editSeton-Watson wrote most of his first major work, Eastern Europe between the Wars, 1918–1941 in Cape Town while on his way from Italy to Britain after the fall of Yugoslavia, finishing it in Cairo during the battle of El Alamein in 1942.
In 1945 he was appointed praelector in politics at University College, Oxford. In 1951 he was appointed to the chair of Russian history at the University of London, where he remained until 1983,[5] exercising a major influence over British and American understandings of Russia during the Cold War. He subsequently became the Professor Emeritus of Russian history.[2]
Beginning in 1957 at Columbia University, he regularly visited institutions in the United States to lecture and conduct research.[6] During a three-month fellowship, beginning in October 1984, at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars he became ill with pulmonary problems and was admitted to Georgetown University Hospital where he died three weeks later.[2]
Work
editAfter publishing The Decline of Imperial Russia, 1855–1914 in 1952, Seton-Watson published his most famous work, The Russian Empire, 1801–1917 in 1967.[5] This became the standard history of late imperial Russia for a generation.[3]
Seton-Watson's Nations and States: an Enquiry into the Origins of Nations and the Politics of Nationalism (1977) made a fundamental contribution to the study of nationalism,[7] though later overshadowed by the success of Benedict Anderson's more theoretical Imagined Communities[citation needed].
The New York Times Book Review called him "the outstanding authority on the satellite countries of Eastern Europe".[2]
Honors
editSeton-Watson became a Fellow of the British Academy in 1969, received a DLitt from Oxford in 1974 and an honorary doctorate from the University of Essex in 1983. In the 1981 New Year Honours he was appointed CBE.[3]
Bibliography
edit- Eastern Europe between the wars (Cambridge Univ. Press, 1945)
- Neither War Nor Peace: The Struggle for Power in the Postwar World (Frederick A. Praeger, 1960)
- The new imperialism: A background book (Bodley Head, 1961)
- Nationalism and communism: essays, 1946–1963 (Methuen, 1964)
- Nationalism old and new (Methuen, 1965)
- The Russian empire 1801–1917 (Clarendon, 1967) online
- The 'sick heart' of modern Europe: the problem of the Danubian lands (University of Washington Press, 1975)
- The imperialist revolutionaries: trends in world Communism in the 1960s and 1970s (Stanford: Hoover Institution Press, 1979.)
- Nations and states: an enquiry into the origins of nations and the politics of nationalism (Methuen, 1977)
- The imperialist revolutionaries (1979)
- Language and national consciousness (Oxford University Press, 1981)
- The making of a new Europe: R.W. Seton-Watson and the last years of Austria-Hungary. With Christopher Seton-Watson (Methuen, 1981)[8]
- The decline of Imperial Russia 1855–1914 (Westview Press, 1985).
- The East European revolution (Westview Press, 1985)[9]
- From Lenin to Khrushchev: the history of world communism (Westview Press, 1985)
- R.W. Seton-Watson and the Roumanians, 1906–20 (2 vols, Editura Științifică și Enciclopedică, București, 1988)
References
edit- ^ "Watson, (George) Hugh Nicholas Seton-". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/31670. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
- ^ a b c d Saxon, Wolfgang (22 December 1984). "PROF. HUGH STETON-WATSON, 68 – HISTORIAN OF EASTERN EUROPE". NY Times. Retrieved 21 December 2013.
- ^ a b c Obolensky, Dimitri (1987). "G.H.N.Seton-Watson.1916–1984" (PDF). Proceedings of the British Academy. LXXIII: 631–642. Retrieved 23 March 2020.
- ^ Stephen Dorril, MI6: Inside the Covert World of Her Majesty's Secret Intelligence Service, Touchstone, 2002 p.60
- ^ a b "Hugh Seton-Watson". Encyclopedia Britannica. Retrieved 23 March 2020.
- ^ "G. Hugh Seton-Watson. Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences". casbs.stanford.edu. Retrieved 23 March 2020.
- ^ Shafer, Boyd C. (1 October 1978). "Hugh Seton-Watson. Nations and States: An Enquiry into the Origins of Nations and the Politics of Nationalism. Boulder, Colo.: Westview Press. 1977. Pp. xv, 563. $25.00". The American Historical Review. 83 (4): 972–973. doi:10.1086/ahr/83.4.972. ISSN 0002-8762.
- ^ Schroeder, Paul W. (1 December 1981). "The Making of a New Europe: R. W. Seton-Watson and the Last Years of Austria-Hungary. Hugh Seton-Watson , Christopher Seton-Watson". The Journal of Modern History. 53 (4): 756–758. doi:10.1086/242406. ISSN 0022-2801.
- ^ Raymond, Ellsworth; Seton-Watson, Hugh (1952). "Review of The East European Revolution". American Slavic and East European Review. 11 (2): 153–154. doi:10.2307/2491566. ISSN 1049-7544. JSTOR 2491566.