Peter Hennessy

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name = Peter John Hennessy
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birth_date = March 28 1947
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occupation = Historian
known_for = Prize winning author
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Peter John Hennessy (born March 28 1947) is an English historian of government. Since 1992, he has been Attlee Professor of Contemporary British History at Queen Mary, University of London. He is a Fellow of the British Academy.

Early life

Hennessy was the youngest of a large Irish Catholic family and he was brought up in large council houses, first in "Aladial Avenue" and then in "Linhurst Gardens", Finchley, London. cite episode|url=http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/thehouseigrewupin/pip/bk10v/ |title="The House I Grew Up In", featuring Peter Hennessy | series = The House I Grew Up In|serieslink = The House I Grew Up In |network=BBC radio 4 |airdate=2007-08-06] He went to the nearby Our Lady of Lourdes primary school, and on Sundays he went to St Mary Magdalene Church, where he was an altar boy. He was a subject of the first episode of the BBC radio 4 series "The House I Grew Up In" first broadcast on 6 August 2007 in which he talked about his childhood. He attended Marling School (a grammar school) in Stroud. He went to St John's College, Cambridge where he gained a BA in 1969 and a PhD in 1990. He was a Kennedy Memorial Scholar at Harvard University from 1971-2.

Career

From the early 1970s, Hennessy was a journalist for the "Times Higher Education Supplement" from 1972-4. He wrote leaders for "The Times" from 1974-82, for which he was also the Whitehall Correspondent. He was "The Financial Times"' Lobby Correspondent at Westminster in 1976 and he wrote for "The Economist" in 1982. He co-founded the Institute of Contemporary British History in 1986. He was a regular presenter of "Analysis" on BBC Radio 4 from 1987 to 1992. From 1994 to 1997, he gave public lectures as professor of rhetoric at Gresham College, London. From 1992-2000 he was Professor of Contemporary History at Queen Mary and Westfield College, University of London. From 2001, he has been Attlee Professor of Contemporary British History at Queen Mary.

His analysis of post-war Britain, "Never Again: Britain 1945-1951", won the Duff Cooper Prize in 1992 and the NCR Book Award in 1993.

On 17 November 2005, he made a trenchant appearance alongside Lord Wilson of Dinton before the House of Commons Public Administration Select Committee on the publication of political memoirs.

His study of Britain in the 1950s and the rise of Harold Macmillan, "Having It So Good: Britain in the 1950s", won the 2007 Orwell Prize for political writing. [ [http://books.guardian.co.uk/news/articles/0,,2065197,00.html Guardian, Orwell prize winner is Having it So Good, Michelle Pauli, Wednesday April 25, 2007] ]

Bibliography

*"Cabinet" (1986)
*"Whitehall" (1989)
*"Never Again: Britain 1945-51" (1992)
*"The Hidden Wiring: Unearthing the British Constitution" (1995)
*"The Prime Minister: The Office and Its Holders since 1945" (2000)
*"The Secret State: Whitehall and the Cold War" (2002)
*"Having It So Good: Britain 1951-64" (2006)
*"Cabinets and the Bomb" (2007) ISBN-13: 978-0-19-726422-5 Oxford University Press

References

* [http://www.history.qmul.ac.uk/staff/hennessy.html Guest, Fiona. 'Peter Hennesy FBA', "Staff of QMUL Department of History", 2005] . Retrieved December 31 2005.
* [http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200506/cmselect/cmpubadm/c689-i/c68902.htm 'Corrected Oral Transcript of Oral Evidence presented to the House of Commons Public Administration Select Committee on the publication of political memoirs on 17 November 2005 by Lord Wilson of Dinton and Professor Peter Hennessy', 7 December 2005.] Retrieved December 31 2005.

Personal life

He ia married with two daughters.

ee also

* List of Gresham Professors of Rhetoric

External links

* [http://www.history.qmul.ac.uk/staff/hennessyp.html Queen Mary]
* [http://www.penguin.co.uk/nf/Author/AuthorPage/0,,1000044694,00.html Penguin Books]
* [http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2004/mar/23/highereducationprofile.highereducation "Guardian" March 2004]
* [http://www.booknotes.org/Transcript/?ProgramID=1446 "Booknotes" interview with Hennessy on "Whitehall", November 26, 1989.]