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Michael Hopkins gave the opening lecture at the Harmsworth Chair Centennial conference at the Rothermere American Institute, University of Oxford on 2-3 June. Twenty former holders of the post joined a number of specialists in American history to celebrate and reflect on over one hundred years of the Harmsworth Professorship of American History at the University of Oxford, the first university chair in US history in the United Kingdom.
Michael, who is writing a history of the professorship, examined the foundation of the post in 1920 and its early history from its first professor in 1922 to the early 1960s. The chair was created through an endowment by the newspaper owner, Lord Rothermere, in honour of his son, Vyvyan Harmsworth, who had died in the First World War. Rothermere and his brother and fellow press baron, Lord Northcliffe, were conscious of the growth in the global power of the United States and the presence of anti-British voices in the country. In response, their aim was to promote deeper knowledge and understanding of American history in the United Kingdom and thereby to cultivate better US-British relations.
Following the framing lecture, the Harmsworth professors led sessions on the experience of holding the post; on the changing boundaries of belonging and citizenship over the past century; on shifting perspectives of America’s role in the world; and on the study of American history in Oxford. In doing so, they explored a central purpose of the Harmsworth Professorship: to afford the opportunity for American scholars to view the United States from the outside.
The conference concluded with a gala dinner at The Queen’s College, where each Harmsworth Professor holds a fellowship during their tenure of the chair. There were after dinner speeches by the Chancellor of the University of Oxford, Lord Patten, and by the Deputy US Ambassador to the United Kingdom, Matthew Palmer.