Geoffrey Hawthorn

Hawthorn studied at Jesus College, Oxford (BA) and the London School of Economics and Political Science (MA).{{citation needed|date=September 2021}}

Hawthorn was a lecturer in Sociology at the University of Essex, 1964–1970. In 1970 he began a longstanding academic association with the University of Cambridge: lecturer in sociology, 1970–1985; reader in Sociology and Politics, 1985–1998; professor of International Politics, 1998–2007; fellow, Churchill College, 1970–1976; fellow, Clare Hall since 1982. Visiting professor of sociology at Harvard University between 1973 and 1974 and between 1989 and 1990; visiting member of the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton, New Jersey, 1989–1990. As from 2007 he was an emeritus professor of International Politics and Social and Political Theory at the University of Cambridge. According to Stefan Collini in Hawthorn's obituary at The Guardian: "It is thanks to him more than to any other individual that Cambridge now boasts a flourishing Department of Politics and International Studies". He was a member of the editorial board of the Cambridge Review of International Affairs.{{cite web|url=http://www.polis.cam.ac.uk/Staff_and_Students/professor-geoffrey-hawthorn |title=Professor Geoffrey Hawthorn—Department of Politics and International Studies (POLIS) |publisher=polis.cam.ac.uk |accessdate=2015-04-18 |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20150418081308/http://www.polis.cam.ac.uk/Staff_and_Students/professor-geoffrey-hawthorn |archivedate=2015-04-18 }}Who's Who, London, A&C Black{{Cite web |url=http://www.sociology.cam.ac.uk/geoffhawthorn |title=Professor Geoffrey Hawthorn 1941-2015 — Department of Sociology |access-date=30 January 2016 |archive-date=6 February 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160206081918/http://www.sociology.cam.ac.uk/geoffhawthorn |url-status=dead }}{{Cite journal|url=http://www.lrb.co.uk/v08/n19/geoffrey-hawthorn/sociology-in-cambridge|title=Sociology in Cambridge|journal=London Review of Books|date=6 November 1986|volume=08|issue=19|last1=Hawthorn|first1=Geoffrey}}

• The Sociology of Fertility, London, Collier-Macmillan, 1970
• Enlightenment and Despair, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1976, 1987
• Population and Development, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1977
• The Standard of Living, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1987
• Plausible Worlds: Possibility and Understanding in History and the Social Sciences, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1991
• The Future of Asia and the Pacific, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1998
• Thucydides on Politics, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2014.

His ideas on contrafactual history are well known and have been highly influential. Hawthorn was also the author of numerous papers in learned journals and other periodicals.{{Cite journal|url=http://bmcr.brynmawr.edu/2014/2014-11-37.html|title=Thucydides on Politics: Back to the Present – Bryn Mawr Classical Review|journal=Bryn Mawr Classical Review}}{{Cite web |url=http://www.polis.cam.ac.uk/about-us/news/professor-geoffrey-hawthorn-1941-2015 |title=Professor Geoffrey Hawthorn 1941-2015 — Department of Politics and International Studies (POLIS) |access-date=9 January 2016 |archive-date=26 January 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160126222945/http://www.polis.cam.ac.uk/about-us/news/professor-geoffrey-hawthorn-1941-2015 |url-status=dead }}{{Cite web|url=http://www.cambridge.org/mx/academic/subjects/history/history-ideas-and-intellectual-history/thucydides-politics-back-present|title = Thucydides on Politics | History of ideas and intellectual history}}

In 1998 he delivered the British Academy's Master-Mind Lecture.{{cite journal|author=Hawthorn, Geoffrey|title=Max Weber|journal=Proceedings of the British Academy|year=1999|volume=101|pages=191–207|url=https://www.thebritishacademy.ac.uk/documents/2470/101p191-Hawthorne.pdf}} The Department of Political Sciences and International Politics of the University of Cambridge instituted the Geoffrey Hawthorn Prize in memory of its founding Head. This prize is awarded to the student with the highest average on a graduate paper.{{Cite web |url=https://www.polis.cam.ac.uk/about-us/news/geoffreyhawthornprize2019 |title=Geoffrey Hawthorn Prize 2019 — Department of Politics and International Studies (POLIS) |access-date=25 April 2020 |archive-date=23 September 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200923152442/https://www.polis.cam.ac.uk/about-us/news/geoffreyhawthornprize2019 |url-status=dead }}

{{Reflist}}

• [https://www.sms.cam.ac.uk/media/1120434 Interviewed by Alan Macfarlane 23 April 2009 (video)]

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hawthorn, Geoffrey}}

Category:1941 births

Category:2015 deaths

Category:Academics of the University of Essex

Category:Alumni of Jesus College, Oxford

Category:Alumni of the London School of Economics

Category:British sociologists

Category:British writers

Category:Fellows of Churchill College, Cambridge

Category:Fellows of Clare Hall, Cambridge