Hugh Swynnerton Thomas, Baron Thomas of Swynnerton (21 October 1931 – 7 May 2017)[1][2] was an English historian and writer, best known for his book The Spanish Civil War.[3]
Thomas was born on 21 October 1931 in Windsor, England, to Hugh Whitelegge Thomas, a colonial commissioner, and his wife Margery Augusta Angelo, née Swynnerton.[4] Sir Shenton Thomas was his uncle.[1] He was educated at Sherborne SchoolinDorset, before going up to Queens' College, Cambridge,[1] where he was a major scholar and later an Honorary Fellow. Thomas gained a first class in Part I of the History Tripos in 1952, and the following year was president of the Cambridge Union Society. He also studied at the Sorbonne in Paris.
From 1954 to 1957, Thomas worked in the Foreign Office partly as secretary of the British Delegation to the sub-committee of the UN Disarmament Commission. From 1966 to 1975, he was Professor of History at the University of Reading, and chairman of the European committee. He was then chairman of the neoliberal Centre for Policy Studies in London from 1979 to 1991.
He wrote political works favouring European integration, such as Europe: the Radical Challenge (1973), as well as histories. He was also the author of three novels: The World's Game (1957), The Oxygen Age (1958), and Klara (1988). Thomas's 1961 book The Spanish Civil War won the Somerset Maugham Award for 1962. A significantly revised and enlarged third edition was published in 1977; further editions were published in 1999 and 2012. Cuba, or the Pursuit of Freedom (1971) is a book of over 1,500 pages tracing the history of Cuba from Spanish colonial rule until the Cuban Revolution. In 1985, he signed a petition against the Sandinista National Liberation FrontofNicaragua,[7] in support of the Contras, an anti-Sandinista paramilitary group.
In 1990 he was one of the leading historians behind the setting up of the History Curriculum Association. The Association advocated a more knowledge-based history curriculum in schools. It expressed "profound disquiet" at the way history was being taught in the classroom and observed that the integrity of history was threatened.[8]
The Spanish Civil War (1961); Penguin Books Ltd (1968); 2nd revised edition (1977); 4th revised edition (2003). A new revised edition in 2011[11] commemorated the book's reaching 50 consecutive years in print; it was published in 15 languages. online
Cuba or the Pursuit of Freedom (1971); revised editions (1998), (2002), (2010). online
An Unfinished History of the World (1979); published in the United States as A History of the World, then as World History (1998); and under the original title in London (byHamish Hamilton) in 1979, and with revised editions in 1981 and 1982. online edition
Eduardo Barreiros and the Recovery of Spain (2009); a biography of Eduardo Barreiros.
The Golden Age: The Spanish Empire of Charles V (2010); the second book in a trilogy about the Spanish Empire. Published in the United States as The Golden Empire: Spain, Charles V, and the Creation of America (2011).
The World's Game; a novel (1957).
The Oxygen Age; a novel (1958).
Klara, a novel (1988).
The Suez Affair (1966); an analysis of the Suez Crisis of 1956.
World Without End: The Global Empire of Philip II (2014); the third volume in a trilogy about the Spanish Empire.
Upon a Chapeau Gules, turned up Ermine, issuant from a representation of the Torre d’Arnolfo on the Palazzo Vicariale at Scarperia in Italy Argent, a Bull’s Head Sable, armed Or.
Escutcheon
Quarterly Argent and Or, a Cross formée flory Sable, surmounted by a Dragon’s Head erased Gules.
Supporters
On either side a Falcon wings expanded and addorsed Argent, beaked, armed and belled Or, legged Gules, gorged with a Torse Or and Gules, and holding in the beak a Quill Argent, penned Or.
Compartment
A Grassy Mound proper, thereon a Bar embowed Or, charged with a Barrulet embowed wavy Azure.
Restall, Matthew. "World Without End: Spain, Philip II, and the First Global Empire.' Journal of World History (2016) 27#3 pp. 571–576. Reviews the book and his career.
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