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Sir John Hrothgar Habakkuk (13 May 1915–3 November 2002) was a British economic historian.

Habakkuk was born in Barry, Vale of Glamorgan, the son of Evan Guest Habakkuk.

He was educated at Barry County School and St John's College, Cambridge. In 1938 he was elected a Fellow of Pembroke College, Cambridge, a position he held until 1950. In addition he was from 1946 until 1950 Director of Studies and Librarian of the college and Lecturer in the Faculty of Economics. In 1973 [[Pembroke elected him to an honorary fellowship. From 1950 until 1960 he was editor, with Michael Postan, of The Economic History Review.

In 1950 he moved to Oxford, where he would remain for the rest of his life. At the age of just thirty-five he had been appointed Chichele Professor of Economic History in the University of Oxford and Professorial Fellow of All Souls College. He held this appointment until 1967, when he became Principal of Jesus College. He also served as Vice-Chancellor of the university 1973-77 and Pro-Vice-Chancellor 1977-84. All Souls re-elected him to a fellowship in 1988. He was also President of University College, Swansea from 1975 until 1984 and an honorary fellow of the college from 1991.

Habakkuk was elected a Fellow of the British Academy in 1965. He was appointed Knight Bachelor in 1976. In the same year he began a four-year term as President of the Royal Historical Society. He was awarded the degree of Doctor of Letters honoris causa by the Universities of Wales (1971), Cambridge (1973), Pennsylvania (1975), Kent (1978), and Ulster (1988).

He was a member of the Advisory Council on Public Records 1958-70, the Social Science Research Council 1967-71, the National Libraries Committee 1968-69, the Administrative Board of the International Association of Universities 75-84, and the Royal Commission on Historical Manuscripts 1978-90. He was Chairman of the Committee of Vice Chancellors and Principals of the Universties of the United Kingdom 1976-77 and of the Oxfordshire District Health Authority 1981-4.

Habakkuk was married to Mary Richards in 1948. They had a son and three daughters. He died, from renal failure and myelodysplasia, at the house of one of his daughters, Little Orchard, Scot Lane, Chew Stoke, on 3 November 2002.

Publications

• John Habakkuk, Marriage, debt, and the estates system: English landownership 1650-1950 (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1994)

• John Habakkuk, Population growth and economic development since 1750 (Leicester: Leicester University Press, 1971)

• John Habakkuk, Industrial organisation since the Industrial Revolution (Southampton: University of Southampton, 1968)

• John Habakkuk, American and British technology in the nineteenth century: the search for labour-saving inventions (Cambridge University Press, 1962)

• 8. John Habakkuk et al., Lectures on economic development=Études sur le développement économique (Iktisat Fakültesi nesriyatı no. 101, Istanbul: Faculty of Economics, Istanbul University, and Faculty of Political Sciences, Ankara University, 1958)

Sources

1. British Academy Deceased Fellows

• Debrett's People of Today (12th edn, London: Debrett's Peerage, 1999), p. 816

External links

• Sir John Habakkuk: Biographical Memoir (PDF)
• Obituary

See also

• List of Vice-Chancellors of the University of Oxford

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