View source for Bernard Crick

{{Short description|British political theorist and democratic socialist (1929–2008)}}
{{EngvarB|date=August 2014}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=August 2014}}
{{Infobox academic
|birth_date={{Birth date|1929|12|16|df=yes}}
|death_date={{Death date and age|2008|12|19|1929|12|16|df=yes}}
|birth_place=England
|death_place=[[Edinburgh]], Scotland
|honorific_prefix = [[Sir]]
|name = Bernard Crick
|image = Bernard Crick.png
|education=[[University College London]] ([[Bachelor of Science|B.Sc.]])<br/> [[London School of Economics]] ([[Doctor of Philosophy|PhD]])
| partner = [[Una Maclean]]
|workplaces=
{{Plainlist|
* [[London School of Economics]] <br> [[University of Sheffield]]
* [[Birkbeck College, University of London]] <br> [[Glasgow University]]
}}
}}
{{Republicanism sidebar}}
'''Sir Bernard Rowland Crick''' (16 December 1929 – 19 December 2008)<ref>{{Cite web | url = https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2008/dec/19/bernard-crick-dies | title = Sir Bernard Crick dies aged 79 | author = Haroon Siddique | date = 19 December 2008 | work = [[The Guardian]]}}</ref> was a British [[political theorist]] and [[democratic socialist]] whose views can be summarised as "politics is ethics done in public". He sought to arrive at a "politics of action", as opposed to a "politics of thought" or of ideology, and he held that {{As written|"political power is power in the [[subjunctive mood]]."}}<ref>Bernard Crick, [https://books.google.com/books?id=tASVLbC0Q5cC&vq= ''In Defence of Politics''], Continuum International Publishing Group, 2005, p. 118.</ref> He was a leading critic of [[behaviouralism]].

Crick is today popularly remembered for having written the first version of the controversial [[Life in the UK test]], a requirement to obtain British citizenship but criticised since its inception for its factual errors and misrepresentations<ref name="glendinning2006">{{cite news | url = https://www.theguardian.com/immigration/story/0,,1764292,00.html | title = Citizenship guide fails its history exam | work = The Guardian | date = 29 April 2006 | location=London | first=Lee | last=Glendinning | access-date=7 May 2010}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/immigration/10119281/British-citizenship-test-is-just-a-bad-pub-quiz.html|title=British citizenship test is just a 'bad pub quiz'| work = The Telegraph|author=Radhika Sanghani |date=13 June 2013|access-date=14 June 2013}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.newstatesman.com/blogs/politics/2012/07/testing-makes-mockery-britishness|title=Testing makes a mockery of Britishness|author=Mehdi Hasan|publisher=New Statesman|date=4 July 2012|access-date=2 August 2012}}</ref><ref>{{cite report|ssrn=2280329 | author=[[Thom Brooks]] | title=The Life in the United Kingdom Citizenship Test: Is It Unfit for Purpose? | date=13 June 2013}}</ref>.

==Career==
Crick was born at 77, Circle Gardens, [[Merton, London (parish)|Merton]], London, the son of Harry Edgar Crick (died 1968), an insurance official, and Florence Clara, née Cook (died 1987).<ref>People of Today, Debrett's, 2006, p. 377</ref><ref>Oxford Dictionary of National Biography 2005-2008, ed. Lawrence Goldman, Oxford University Press, 2013, p. 268</ref> He was educated at [[Whitgift School]].<ref name="ReferenceA">''Who's Who 2007'', London : A. & C. Black, 2007 : 519</ref> He read Economics at [[University College London]], obtaining a Bachelor of Science degree, before transferring to the [[London School of Economics]] for doctoral study. While working on his [[Doctor of Philosophy|Ph.D.]]—published in 1958 as ''The American Science of Politics''—he was a Teaching Fellow at Harvard (1952–1954), Assistant Professor at McGill (1954–1955), and Visiting Fellow at Berkeley (1955–1956).<ref name="ReferenceA"/> Returning to the United Kingdom in 1956, he obtained his Ph.D. at the LSE and was appointed to an Assistant and later a Senior Lectureship, 1957–1965.<ref name="ReferenceA"/>

During his period at the LSE, recollections of which appear in his contribution to ''My LSE'',<ref>Abse, Joan (ed)., London: Robson, 1977.</ref> Crick craved for greater recognition than his Senior Lecturership signified. LSE's promotion system was notoriously slow at the time. When appointed Professor of Political Theory and Political Institutions at Sheffield in 1965, Crick told ''Beaver'', the LSE student newspaper, that he was "going to a better place from the point of view of teaching students".<ref>''Beaver'', 1965.</ref> 

Crick was an advisor to British [[Labour Party (UK)|Labour Party]] leader [[Neil Kinnock]] during the 1980s. When Labour came to power in 1997, Crick was appointed by his former student [[David Blunkett]] to head up an advisory group on [[Citizenship education (subject)|citizenship education]]. The group's final report<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.qca.org.uk/libraryAssets/media/6123_crick_report_1998.pdf |title=Education for citizenship and the teaching of democracy in schools |author=Advisory Group on Citizenship |date=22 September 1998 |publisher=[[Qualifications and Curriculum Authority|QCA]] |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090327021218/http://www.qca.org.uk/libraryAssets/media/6123_crick_report_1998.pdf |archive-date=27 March 2009 |df=dmy }}</ref> in 1998, known as the Crick Report,<ref>{{Cite web | url = http://www.hansardsociety.org.uk/blogs/citizenship_education/archive/2008/11/20/ten-years-after-crick-report.aspx | title = Ten Years after the Crick Report | date = 19 November 2008 | work = [[Hansard Society]] | url-status = dead | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20090106190751/http://www.hansardsociety.org.uk/blogs/citizenship_education/archive/2008/11/20/ten-years-after-crick-report.aspx | archive-date = 6 January 2009 | df = dmy-all }}</ref> led to the introduction of citizenship as a core subject in the [[National Curriculum (England, Wales and Northern Ireland)|National Curriculum]].<ref name = "bbc">{{cite web |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/2248319.stm |title=Blunkett names 'Britishness' chief |accessdate=20 August 2008 |work=[[BBC News]] |date=10 September 2002 }}</ref> He was knighted in the 2002 [[Orders, decorations, and medals of the United Kingdom|new years honours list]] for "services to citizenship in schools and to political studies".<ref name= "bbc" /> He authored the 2004 Home Office book ''[[Life in the United Kingdom]]: A Journey to Citizenship'', which forms the basis for the new [[Life in the United Kingdom test|citizenship test]] required by all people naturalising as British citizens.

He taught at the [[University of Sheffield]] (1965–1971).<ref name="ReferenceA"/> and founded a Department of Politics and Sociology, later the Department of Politics, at [[Birkbeck, University of London|Birkbeck College, University of London]] in 1972.<ref>[http://www.bbk.ac.uk/politics/about-us "About us"], Department of Politics, Birkbeck. University of London.</ref>

Crick co-authored, with [[David Millar (civil servant)|David Millar]], an influential pamphlet entitled ''Making Scotland's Parliament Work''.<ref>[https://books.google.com/books/about/Making_Scotland_s_Parliament_Work.html?id=Q7ogAAAACAAJ ''Making Scotland's Parliament Work''], John Wheatley Centre, 1991.</ref> Later in his life in Scotland, Crick was delighted to be appointed Stevenson Visiting Professor at [[Glasgow University]].<ref name="Stevenson Trust">{{cite web |url=http://www.gla.ac.uk/schools/socialpolitical/research/politics/stevensontrust/about/bernardcrick/ |title=Stevenson Trust for Citizenship: Sir Bernard Crick |publisher=[[University of Glasgow]] |accessdate=20 July 2015}}</ref> Despite his frail health at that time, Crick delivered a series of widely praised and very popular public lectures. Upon his death, Glasgow University marked his contribution by establishing the Bernard Crick Memorial Lecture.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.gla.ac.uk/schools/socialpolitical/research/politics/stevensontrust/about/bernardcrick/ | title=University of Glasgow - Schools - School of Social & Political Sciences - Research - Research in Politics & International Relations - Stevenson Trust for Citizenship - About the Trust - Sir Bernard Crick Memorial Lectures }}</ref>

Crick made many other contributions to Scottish political life, from participating in his local Labour Party, to defending Glenogle Baths from closure, to, in his last weeks of life, penning a humorous Op-Ed for ''The Scotsman'' on the chaos caused by the tram line delays in Edinburgh.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://www.scotsman.com/news/bernard-crick-day-of-the-bollards-when-traffic-stood-still-1-1279522 |first=Bernard |last=Crick |title=Day of the bollards, when traffic stood still |work=[[The Scotsman]] |date=18 November 2008 |accessdate=20 July 2015}}</ref>

==Private life==
Crick died from [[prostate cancer]] at the age of 79, in St. Columba's Hospice, [[Edinburgh]].<ref>{{cite news |author1=Mark McLaughlin |author2=John Gibson |title=Jazz band helps Sir Bernard's funeral go with a real swing |work=Edinburgh Evening News |date=7 January 2009  |accessdate=25 March 2009 |url=http://edinburghnews.scotsman.com/latestnews/Jazz-band-helps-Sir-Bernards.4850421.jp }}</ref> It had been diagnosed about fourteen years earlier.<ref>Bernard Crick: [http://www.orwell.ru/a_life/crick/english/e_bbbel "Big Brother belittled"], ''The Guardian'', 19 August 2000.</ref>

==Awards and legacy==
The PSA also created the Sir Bernard Crick Awards for Outstanding Teaching in honour of Crick and his work. Two awards are made at the PSA Annual Conference, the Main Prize, and a New Entrant Prize for early career academics.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.psa.ac.uk/sites/default/files/Bernard%20Crick%20Awards%20Rules.pdf|title=Bernard Crick Awardsfor Outstanding Teaching}}</ref> 
<!-- (unencyclopaedic style, unreferenced content) In a 1965 interview with ''Beaver'', the LSE's undergraduate newsheet, Crick announced his ambition to write "a big book on the conditions of political freedom", though none appeared. and the fact is congruent with Crick's cast of mind. Despite the scintillating fun and real perceptiveness of ''[[In Defence of Politics]]'', Crick had little aptitude for the higher reaches of political theory. He was creative about institutional politics, as 'The Reform of Parliament' (1964) makes clear, but his biography of Orwell, well-researched and competent, operated at the middle range of political theory with which (at least on one view – nothing is uncontroversial) he was most at home.-->

Crick was knighted in 2002.<ref>[https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/3884593/Sir-Bernard-Crick.html "Sir Bernard Crick" (obituary)], ''The Telegraph'', 21 December 2008.</ref>

After his death, the University of Sheffield established the Sir Bernard Crick Centre. The centre aims to 'Bridge a number of gaps that appear to have emerged in recent decades (if not before). The first gap concerns the relationship between the governors and the governed in democratic countries.'<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.crickcentre.org/about/ |title=About the Centre |website=The Crick Centre |publisher=[[University of Sheffield]] |accessdate=20 July 2015}}</ref> The centre also aims to communicate social science to the public – or the social implications of 'hard' scientific advances – without, in doing so, losing those elements of scholarship that provide depth and context.

Glasgow University also recognised Sir Bernard's contribution by establishing an annual memorial lecture series.<ref name="Stevenson Trust"/>

==Work on George Orwell==
In 1974, Crick began working on a biography of [[George Orwell]] with the help of Orwell's second wife [[Sonia Brownell]]. The hardback edition rights were used to set up a grant in conjunction with [[Birkbeck, University of London|Birkbeck College]] to fund projects by new writers that would have interested Orwell. In 1980, just before the book was published, a friend of Crick's, [[David Astor]], agreed to match the grant. Over the years, there were contributions by [[Richard Blair (patron)|Richard Blair]], Orwell's adopted son, and ''[[The Observer]]'' newspaper, among others. Due to a lack of discernible projects, after five years the fund was diverted to produce an annual memorial lecture at Birkbeck College and the [[University of Sheffield]], and also to provide small departmental grants. The lectures continue: they are now hosted each year by the Orwell Foundation (originally established by Crick as the Orwell Prize; see below) at University College London, home of the Orwell Archive; in November 2016 the Orwell Lecture was given by [[Ian Hislop]]. Previous lecturers include [[Rowan Williams]] and [[Hilary Mantel]]. In 2017, the Orwell Foundation and the Sir Bernard Crick Centre re-established a new Orwell Lecture in the North at the University of Sheffield: the inaugural lecture was given by Turner Prize-winning artist [[Grayson Perry]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2017/nov/19/grayson-perry-orwell-lecture-sheffield|title=Grayson Perry goes north to help make Britain whole again|website=The Guardian|date=19 November 2017 }}</ref>

In 1993, Crick established the [[Orwell Prize]] with sponsorship from ''[[The Political Quarterly]]'' to honour political writing. Initially, two awards were given out each year – one for political journalism and the other for a political book. The first awards in 1994 were received by [[Anatol Lieven]] for his book ''The Baltic Revolution'' and to ''[[The Independent on Sunday]]'' journalist [[Neal Ascherson]]. Crick was on the judging panel until the 2007 awards. BBC official historian Professor [[Jean Seaton]] became Director of the prize in 2006 and the prize became a registered charity (The Orwell Foundation) in 2015. The Foundation awards four Orwell Prizes – for political journalism, political writing (non-fiction only), political fiction and Exposing Britain's Social Evils – and hosts regular debates, lectures and events, including the Orwell Lecture. Judging panels are appointed each year. In 2008, Crick became active in supporting "Orwell Direct",<ref>{{cite web |last1=Crick |first1=Sir Bernard |title=Orwell as Comic Writer (2008) |url=https://orwellsociety.com/orwell-as-comic-writer-by-bernard-crick/ |website=FinlayPublisher (extinct) |date=8 November 2011 |publisher=FinlayPublisher |accessdate=3 September 2020}}</ref> a website dedicated to the life and works of Orwell created by [[Dione Venables]], which later became [[The Orwell Society]].

==Ideas==
According to Crick, the ideologically driven leader practises a form of anti-politics in which the goal is the mobilisation of the populace towards a common end—even on pain of death.<ref>Kel Richards, "Language" ''Spectator Australia'' (17 September 2022) </ref>

==Anti-behaviouralism==
Crick's first book, ''The American Science of Politics'' (1959), attacked the behavioural approach to politics, which was dominant in the United States, and little known in Britain. He identified and rejected their basic premises: that research can discover uniformities in human behaviour, that these uniformities could be confirmed by empirical tests and measurements, that quantitative data was of the highest quality, and should be analysed statistically, that political science should be empirical and predictive, downplaying the philosophical and historical dimensions, and the value-free research was the ideal, with the goal of social science to be a macro theory covering all the social sciences, as opposed to applied issues of practical reform.<ref>"Crick, Bernard," in John Ramsden (ed.), ''The Oxford Companion to Twentieth-century British Politics'' (2002), p. 174.</ref>

==Publications==
Crick's works include:
* ''The American Science of Politics'' (1959)
* ''In Defence of Politics'' (1962, and five subsequent editions, the last in 2002)
* ''Political Theory and Practice'' (1963)
* ''The Reform of Parliament'' (1964)
* ''Parliament and the people'' (with Sally Jenkinson) (1966)
* ''Essays on Reform'' (1967)
* ''Crime, Rape and Gin: Reflections on Contemporary Attitudes to Violence, and Addiction'' (1974)
* ''Essays on Political Education'' (with Derek Heater) (1977)
* ''George Orwell: A Life'' (1980; revised 1982; revised and updated edition, 1992)
* ''[https://digital.library.lse.ac.uk/Documents/Detail/socialist-values-and-time-1984/116134 Socialist Values and Time]'' (1984)
* ''Socialism'' (1987)
* ''What is Politics?'' (with Tom Crick)
* ''The Labour Party's Aims and Values: an unofficial statement'' (with David Blunkett) (1988)
* ''Essays on Politics and Literature'' (1989)
* ''Political Thoughts and Polemics'' (1990)
* ''To Make the Parliament of Scotland a Model for Democracy'' (with David Millar) (1995)
* ''Education for Citizenship and the Teaching of Democracy in Schools'' (aka ''The Crick Report'') (1998)
* ''Crossing Borders: Political Essays'' (2001)
* ''Democracy: A Very Short Introduction'' (2002)
* ''The Commons in Transition'' (with A. H. Hanson) (1970)
* ''The Future of the Social Services'' (with William Robson) (1970)
* ''Protest and Discontent'' (1970)
* ''Taxation Policy'' (with William A. Robson) (1973)
* ''The Discourses by Niccolò Machiavelli'' (1974)
* ''Political Education and Political Literacy'' (with Alex Porter) (1978)
* ''Unemployment'' (1980)
* ''National identities: the constitution of the United Kingdom'' (1991)
* ''Citizens: Towards a Citizenship Culture'' (2001)
* ''Education for Democratic Citizenship'' (with Andrew Lockyer) (2003)

==References==
{{Reflist|30em}}

==External links==
{{wikiquote}}
* Bernard Crick: [http://www.orwell.ru/a_life/crick/english/e_bbbel "Big Brother belittled"], ''The Guardian'', 19 August 2000.
* [http://www.orwell.ru/a_life/Bernard_Crick/english/ Online version of Crick's biography ''George Orwell: A Life'']
*[[Orwell Prize|The Orwell Prize]]
* Trevor Smith, [https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2008/dec/19/past "Sir Bernard Crick" (obituary)], ''The Guardian'', 19 December 2008
* [http://www.bbk.ac.uk/lib/about/crick  Sir Bernard Crick Archive]

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Crick, Bernard}}
[[Category:1929 births]]
[[Category:2008 deaths]]
[[Category:Academics of Birkbeck, University of London]]
[[Category:Academics of the University of Sheffield]]
[[Category:British humanists]]
[[Category:European democratic socialists]]
[[Category:Harvard University faculty]]
[[Category:Knights Bachelor]]
[[Category:People educated at Whitgift School]]
[[Category:Alumni of University College London]]
[[Category:Writers from London]]
[[Category:British political philosophers]]
[[Category:Deaths from prostate cancer in Scotland]]
[[Category:Academics of the London School of Economics]]
[[Category:George Orwell]]
[[Category:British socialists]]
[[Category:Members of the Fabian Society]]
[[Category:British republicans]]