ABSTRACT
Hrothgar John (Sir John) Habakkuk was Distinguished Fellow of All Souls College, Oxford. He was born in Barry, Glamorgan in 1915 and died in Somerset in 2002. The interviewer was M T of the University of Virginia, whose B.A. degree was conferred officially by Habakkuk himself, but who did not get to know Sir John well until this interview, which took place in Habakkuk’s study at All Souls, July 4, 1997. Mark Thomas writes:
Sir John Habakkuk was one of the most important figures of the past century in economic history in Britain, and had a major influence not only through his own work but also via his training of many graduate students. He took first-class honours in Modern History at Cambridge in 1936 and was elected to a Fellowship at Pembroke College, Cambridge in 1938. During World War II, Habakkuk was seconded to the Civil Service, serving first in the (then secret) code-breaking operation at Bletchley Park, in the Ministry of War Transport (official historian) and finally in the Commercial Relations and Treaties Department of the Board of Trade. He returned to Cambridge in 1946, taking on additional responsibilities as University Lecturer in Economics. In 1950 he was elected Fellow of All Souls and Chichele Professor in Economic History at Oxford. He spent two academic years in the US; in 1954-55 he replaced Alexander Gerschenkron at Harvard but declined an invitation to join the faculty permanently, and in 1962-63 he was Ford Research Professor at Berkeley. He vacated the Chichele Professorship in 1967 when he was elected Principal of Jesus College, Oxford, a position he retained until his retirement in 1984. Professor Habakkuk also served as Vice Chancellor of Oxford during the difficult years of 1973-7, and was President of University College, Swansea (1975-84). He received his Knighthood in 1976 and was elected Fellow of the British Academy (1965) and Foreign Member of both the American Philosophical Society (1966) and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (1969). Among his
many contributions to the profession were his co-editorship with M. M. Postan of The Economic History Review (1950-60), and his Presidency of the Royal Historical Society (1976-80). He also served with Postan as a general editor of the Cambridge Economic History of Europe. In 1994 Professor Habakkuk was honored with a splendid Festschrift edited by F. M. L. Thompson, Landowners, Capitalists, and Entrepreneurs.
