David Paul CROOK, B.A. (Qld), PhD (London), Doctor of Letters (Qld)
Click here to Download Paul Crook’s Curriculum Vitae

• Born Brisbane 12.1.1937; B.A. (University of Queensland), 1958, 1st Class Honours, History, University Medal
• PhD (University of London, London School of Economics and Political Science), 1961
• Doctor of Letters, University of Queensland (November, 1988)
• Appointed Lecturer in History, University of Queensland, 1962; Senior Lecturer, 1965;
• Reader, 1969
• Appointed to Personal Chair in History, March 1990
• Awarded Visiting Fellowship Clare Hall, Cambridge, 1992; elected life member Clare Hall, 1993
• Retirement 19 February 1999: appointed Emeritus Professor
• Honorary Research Consultant, History Department 1999-2002, School of History,
• Philosophy, Religion and Classics 2002+

Teaching Areas: Modern British History and Social Thought; Social Darwinism; and Victorian Studies

Contact: paulcrook@westnet.com.au

RESEARCH AND PUBLICATIONS

Comparative American and English Politics:
American Democracy in English Politics, 1815-50 (Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1965) was widely and favourably reviewed internationally; and was the subject of scholarly discussion at conferences (e.g. ANZAAS, 1969, symposium chaired Professor Paul Bourke, Flinders) and seminars (e.g. Charles Warren Center, Harvard under John Clive, who edited a long review article on the book, Harvard Perspectives in American History, 1969).

American Civil War Diplomacy:
The author is one of the few Australian historians to win recognition in a major American field, Civil War Studies, with The North, the South and the Powers (Wiley, 1974) and Diplomacy During the American Civil War (Wiley, 1975). Highly acclaimed in the reviews, these books became standard reference works on the subject.

Social Darwinism in the C19 and C20:
The author’s biography of a leading British figure Benjamin Kidd: Portrait of a Social Darwinist (Cambridge University Press, 1984) attracted major reviews, including a two-page leading article in the Times Literary Supplement (14 December 1984).

This was part of a much broader study underway into the social and political implications of Darwinism in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, encompassing ideas and attitudes on warfare, imperialism, race, democracy, eugenics, religion and social philosophy. Projects in this area were funded from 1984 until 2000 by the Australian Research Grants Commission, the Humanities Special Grants Scheme, the Special Project Grants Scheme, and a UQ External Support Enabling Grant.

Products from this research included books on Darwinism and War, and a broader study of Social Darwinism. Later research resulted in a biography of the anatomist and Egyptologist Grafton Elliot Smith.  Present interest is focused upon the attitude of intellectuals to religious unbelief in Britain in the 1920s and 1930s.

Paul Crook has published numerous scholarly conference papers, and book chapters. He has also reviewed widely in academic journals. He is review editor of the Australian Journal of Politics and History (1989+), and edited University of Queensland Historical Proceedings (1991- 2005).

University administrative experience included membership of a number of committees, including executive of Queensland Staff Association, University of Queensland Club, Departmental Standing Committee, Departmental Research Committee and acting headship of History Department on numerous occasions. Was a member of the Humanities Group Research Committee, Senate Honorary Degrees Committee, Arts Promotions Committee and Doctor of Letters Committee. Coordinator of Honours Studies in History (1989-1991) and Coordinator of History Staff/Postgraduate Departmental Seminars (1990-92). Liaison Convener, Qld, for Humanities Research Centre (ANU.) Qld correspondent Australian History Association. Qld representative Australasian Modern British History Association.  ARC assessor (1991+). Member Qld History Teachers Association. Supervisor of many successful MA and PhD students

LIST OF PUBLICATIONS

Books:

• American Democracy in English Politics, 1815-50 (Oxford, Clarendon Press 1965), xvi + 237 pp.
• The North, the South and the Powers, 1860-1865 (London/New York, Wiley, 1974), x + 405 pp.
• Diplomacy During the American Civil War (London, New York, Wiley 1975), 209 pp.
• Benjamin Kidd:  Portrait of a Social Darwinist (Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1984), vii + 460 pp.
• Darwinism, War and History: The Debate over the Biology of War from the ‘Origin of Species’ to the First World War  (Cambridge, Cambridge University Press. 1994), xii + 306pp.
• Darwin’s Coat-Tails: Essays on Social Darwinism (Oxford, New York, Peter Lang), xiv +340pp.
• Grafton Elliot Smith, Egyptology and the Diffusion of Culture (Brighton, Sussex Academic Press, 2012), vii+160pp

Edited Work:

• Crook, D.P., ed., Questioning the Past: A Selection of Papers in History and Government. x + 433 pp, with Preface by the author and contributory chapter:  “Tocqueville’s Democracy in America and the British Intelligentsia”, pp.144-172 (St Lucia, Queensland University Press, 1972).
• Editor, Australian Journal of Politics and History, 36, 3 (1990), pp.315-503.
• Editor, Proceedings of the University of Queensland History Research Group (re-titled University of Queensland Historical Proceedings (1991- 2005)

Chapters in Books:

• “The Crucible: Labor in Coalition, 1903-7”. In Hughes, C., Joyce, R.B., Murphy, D., eds., Prelude to Power: The Rise of the Labour Party in Queensland. pp. 56-73 (Brisbane, Jacaranda Press, 1970).
• “The Imperial Idea, War and ‘Survival of the Fittest’, 1890-1914”, in Arvind Sharma, Perspectives on History and Culture: Essays in Honour of Professor D.P.Singhal (1925-86) (Delhi, 1992), pp.23-45.
• “Benjamin Kidd: Social Prophet as Journalist”, in Barbara Garlick and Margaret Harris, eds., Victorian Journalism: Exotic and Domestic (Brisbane, University of Queensland Press, 1998), pp.108-123.
• “Whiggery and America: Accommodating the Radical Threat”, in Michael T.Davis, ed., Radicalism and Revolution in Britain 1775-1848: Essays in Honour of Malcolm I.Thomis (Houndmills, Basingstoke and London, Macmillan Press, 2000), pp.191-206

Articles:

• “Occupations of the People of Brisbane:  An Aspect of Urban Society in the 1880s”, Historical Studies of Australia and New Zealand 10, 37, (1961): 50-64.
• “The British Whigs on America, 1820-1850”, Bulletin of British Association for American Studies No. 3 (1961): 4-18.
• “The United States in Jeremy Bentham’s Thought”, Australian Journal of Politics and History 10, 2 (1964): 196-204.
• “The Student Movement and the New Left”, World Review 7, 3 (1968): 7-25.
• “Portents of War: English Opinion on Secession”, Journal of American Studies 4, 2 (1971): 163-179.
• “Finch-Hatton, Harold Heneage (1856-1904)”, Australian Dictionary of Biography, vol. 4 ed., B. Nairn, G. Serle, R. Ward (Melbourne University Press, 1972), 168 (joint authorship with David Denholm)
• “Was Benjamin Kidd a Racist?”, Ethnic and Racial Studies 2, 2 (1979):213-221.
• “Bio-Politics in the 1890s:  Benjamin Kidd and ‘Social Evolution’”, Australian Journal of Politics and History 26, 2 (1980): 212-227.
• “Darwinism – the Political Implications”, History of European Ideas 2, 1 (1981): 19-34.
• “A Checklist of the Publications of Benjamin Kidd, 1858-1916” (joint authorship with D. O’Donnell), Victorian Periodicals Review 16, 1 (1983): 27-31.
• “Darwin on War and Aggression”, Australian Journal of Politics and History 29, 2 (1983): 344-353.
• “Nature’s Pruning Hook? War and Evolution, 1890-1918: A Response to Nancy Stepan”, Australian Journal of Politics and History 33, 3 (1987): 237-252.
• “Emeritus Professor Gordon Greenwood”, Annual Report, Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia, (1987): 47-52.
• “Peter Chalmers Mitchell and Anti-War Evolutionism in Britain During the Great War”, Journal of the History of Biology (Harvard) 22, 2 (1989), 325-356.
• “‘Man the Fighting Animal’: Belligerent Images of Humankind in the Anglo-American World, 1914-18”, Australasian Journal of American Studies 8, 2 (December 1989), 25-39.
• “War as Genetic Disaster? The World I Debate over the Eugenics of Warfare”, War and Society 8, 1 (March 1990), 47-70.
• “Western Pride and ‘Primitive’ Peoples: Some Historical Observations (to 1914)”, Australian Journal of Politics and History, 36, 3 (1990), 343-346.
• “W.R. Inge and Cultural Crisis, 1899-1920”, Journal of Religious History, 16,4 (1991), 410-32.
• “The Debate Over the Biology of War During World War 1”,   Proceedings University of Qld History Research Group, 2 (1992), 34-38.
• “Science and War: Radical Scientists and the Tizard-Cherwell Area Bombing Debate in Britain” War & Society ,12, 2, (1994), 69-101.
• “J. D. Bernal, ‘Mulberry’ and the Normandy Invasion”, Proceedings Univ. of Qld History Research Group, 5 (1994), 111-120.
• “Social Darwinism: The Concept”, History of European Ideas, 22, 4 (1996), 261-274
• “Was Charles Darwin to Blame for Cecil Rhodes? Evolution and Empire”, Proceedings University of Qld History Research Group, 8 (1997), 60-82
• “Human Pugnacity and War: Some Anticipations of Sociobiology, 1880-1919”, Biology and Philosophy, 13, 2 (1998), 263-288
• “Social Darwinism and British ‘New Imperialism’: Second Thoughts”, The European Legacy 3, 1 (1998), 1-16
• “Historical Monkey Business: The Myth of a Darwinized British Imperial Discourse”, History, 84,276 (1999), 633-657
• “Ideology of the Master Race: Eugenics and Scientific Racism in the United States and the Third Reich”, Proceedings University of Qld History Research Group, 10 (1999), 53-62
• “Henry Hotze (1833-1887)”. Entry, American National Biography, 11(1999), 245-247
• “British Anthropologists Face the Nazis: The Prelude to the Race and Culture Committee Report 1934-36”, Proceedings University of Qld History Research Group, 11 (2000), 38-69
• “American Eugenics and the Nazis: Recent Historiography”, The European Legacy, 7,3 (2002), 363-381
• “Eugenics, Genetics and Feeblemindedness in Interwar Britain: How Scientists Coped with the Problems of the Goddard Data and the Hardy-Weinberg Formula”, Proc.UQ Hist.Research Group, 13 (2002), 101-119
•  “Benjamin Kidd (1858-1916)”, Entry, The Dictionary of Nineteenth-Century British Philosophers (Thoemmes Press) vol 2 (2002), 635-637
• “Benjamin Kidd (1858-1916)”. Entry, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (UK)  (2004)
•  “Benjamin Kidd”   Entry, Dictionary of Nineteenth Century British Scientists (2004)

Review Articles:

• “The Rise and Decline of an Industrial Empire”, review of E.J. Hobsbawm, Industry and Empire: An Economic History of Britain since 1750 (London, 1968), Queensland Historical Review, 1 (1968): 52-9.
• “Social Darwinism: Some Historiographical Reflections”, Australian Journal of Politics and History [AJPH], 39, 1 (1993), 88-94.
• “English Political Thought in the Nineteenth Century: A Reappraisal”, Australian Journal of Politics and History [AJPH], 41, 2 (1995), 271-277
• “Huxley AD: [T. H. Huxley: Champion or Critic of Imperial Science?]”, Metascience New Ser.7 (1995), 37-42
• “Recent Historical Writings on Darwinism” AJPH, 45, 1 (1999), 110-118
• “The New Eugenics? The Ethics of Bio-Technology”, AJPH, 54, 1 (2008), 135-143

Reviews:

• G.R. Kitson Clark, An Expanding Society: Britain 1830-1900 (Melbourne University Press, 1967), Historical Studies 13, 49 (1967): 125-7.
• Austin Mitchell, The Whigs in Opposition, 1815-30 (Oxford, 1967), New Zealand Journal of History 2, 2 (October 1968): 213-5.
• E.J. Feuchtwanger, Disraeli, Democracy and the Tory Party (Oxford, 1968), Australian Journal of Politics and History [AJPH] 15, 2 (1969): 128-9.
• R. Kelley, The Transatlantic Persuasion (New York, 1969); and Bradford Perkins, The Great Rapprochement: England and the US, 1895-1914 (New York, 1968), Victorian Studies 13, 3 (March 1970): 360-6.
• F.E. Huggett (ed.), What They’ve Said About Nineteenth Century Statesmen (Oxford University Press, 1972), World Review 12, 3 (October 1973): 58.
• N.B. Ferris, Desperate Diplomacy: W.H. Seward’s Foreign Policy, 1861 (University of Tennessee Press, 1976), The Historian 30, 1 (November 1977): 126-7.
• M.D. Biddiss (ed.), Images of Race (Leicester, 1979), Ethnic and Racial Studies 3, 1 (1980): 117-8.
• B. Jenkins, Britain and the War for the Union (Montreal, 2 vols: 1974; 1980), Victorian Studies 26, 2 (Winter 1983): 230-2.
• G. Holmes, Augustan England: Professions, State and Society, 1680-1730 (London, 1982), Australian Journal of Politics and History 29, 3 (1983): 566-7.
• S. Collini, Donald Winch and John Burrow, That Noble Science of Politics: A Study in Nineteenth Century Intellectual History (Cambridge University Press, 1983), Australian Journal of Politics and History 31, 2 (1985): 349.
• J. Durant (ed.), Darwinism and Divinity: Essays on Evolution and Religious Belief (Oxford, New York, 1985), Australian Journal of Politics and History 32, 3 (1986): 529-530.
• P. Levine, The Amateur and the Professional: Antiquarians, Historians and Archaeologists in Victorian England, 1838-1886 (Cambridge University Press, 1986), Australian Journal of Politics and History 33, 1 (1987): 146-147.
• Alan Ryan, (ed.), Utilitarianism and Other Essays. By John Stuart Mill and Jeremy Bentham (Harmondsworth, Penguin Books, 1987), Australian Journal of Politics and History 33, 3 (1987): 325-326.
• Hugh Brogan, The Pelican History of the United States of America (Harmondsworth, Penguin Books, 1986), Australasian Journal of American Studies 6, 2 (1987): 46-48.
• Bob Nicholls, Bluejackets and Boxers: Australia’s Naval Expedition to the Boxer Uprising (Sydney, London, Boston, 1986), Victorian Periodicals Review 21, 3 (1988): 128.
• Robert C. Bannister, Sociology and Scientism: the American Quest for Objectivity, 1880-1940 (Chapel Hill & London, University of North Carolina Press, 1987), Australasian Journal American Studies 7, 2 (1988): 48-50.
• Michael Freeden, (ed.), J.A. Hobson: A Reader (London, Unwin Hyman, 1988), Australian Journal of Politics and History 35, 3 (1989): 486-487.
• John Dinwiddy, Bentham (Oxford, Oxford University Press, 1989), Australian Journal of Politics and History 36, 2 (1990): 311-312.
• S.A. Barnett, Biology and Freedom (Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1988), Australian Journal of Politics and History 36, 3 (1990): 499-501.
• Twentieth Century British History, 1, 1 (Oxford University Press, 1990), Australian Journal of Politics and History 37, 1 (1991), 142-143.
• Daniel Pick, Faces of Degeneration: A European Disorder, c.1848-c.1918 (Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1989), Australian Journal of Politics and History, 37, 3 (1991), 533-34.
• Trevor Wilson, Myriad Faces of War: Britain and the Great War, 1914-18 (Oxford, Polity, 1988), Australian Journal of Politics and History, 38, 1 (1992), 125.
• P.Mathias and J.A.Davis,eds., The First Industrial Revolutions(Oxford, Blackwell, 1990), Australian Journal of Politics and History, 38, 2 (1992), 296-97.
• David Miller, ed., The Blackwell Encyclopaedia of Political Thought (Oxford, Basil Blackwell, pb.,1991), Australian Journal of Politics and History, 38, 3 (1992),500-01.
• Vernon Bogdanor, ed., The Blackwell Encyclopaedia of Political Science (Oxford, Basil Blackwell, pb., 1991), Australian Journal of Politics and History, 38, 3 (1992),501.
• Harold Perkin, The Rise of Professional Society: England Since 1880 (London, Routledge, 1989), Australian Journal of Politics and History, 39, 2 (1993),288-89.
• Andrew Thorpe, Britain in the 1930s: The Deceptive Decade (Oxford, Blackwell, 1992), Australian Journal of Politics and History, 39, 3 (1993), 454-56
• Peter Riddell, The Thatcher Era and its Legacy (Oxford, Blackwell, 1991), Australian Journal of Politics and History, 40, 1 (1994),123
• E.P.Thompson, Customs in Common (Penguin, 1993), Australian Journal of Politics and History [AJPH], 40, 1 (1994), 120-21
• Peter N.Stearns, The Industrial Revolution in World History (Essays in World History Series) (Oxford, Westview Press, 1993), AJPH, 40, 2 (1994), 267-68
• John Kenyon, The History Men: The Historical Profession in England since the Renaissance (2^nd ed., London, Wiedenfeld and Nicholson, 1993), AJPH, 40, 3 (1994), 429-30
• Elazar Barkan, The Retreat of Scientific Racism: Changing Concepts of Race in Britain and the United States between the World Wars (Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1994), Journal of Historical Geography, 21, 3 (1995), 356-57
• Azar Gat, The Origins of Military Thought (Oxford, Oxford University Press, 1989); and The Development of Military Thought: The Nineteenth Century (OUP, 1992), Journal of Modern History, 68, 3 (1996), 666-69
• Gerard J.DeGroot, Blighty: British Society in the Era of the Great War (London and NY, Lomgman, 1996), AJPH, 44, 1 (1998), 143-44
• Mike Hawkins, Social Darwinism in European and American Thought, 1860-1945 (Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1997), The European Legacy, 3, 5 (1998),127-128
• Michael Ruse, The Darwinian Paradigm: Essays on its History, Philosophy and Religious Implications (London and New York, Routledge, 1993; 1^st pub.1989), The European Legacy, 3, 6 (1998), 129-130
• Michael Ruse, Mystery of Mysteries: Is Evolution a Social Construction? (Cambridge, MA and London, Harvard University Press, 1999), The European Legacy, 5, 4 (2000), 585-
• Diane B. Paul, The Politics of Heredity: Essays on Eugenics, Biomedicine and the Nature-Nurture Debate (Albany, State University of New York Press, 1998), AJPH, 47, 3 (2001), 453-454
• F.H.Hinsley and Alan Stripp, Codebreakers: The Inside Story of Bletchley Park (Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2001), AJPH, 48, 1 (2002), 134-135
• Robert N. Proctor, The Nazi War on Cancer (Princeton, Princeton University Press, 1999), The European Legacy, 7, 2 (2002), 239-241
• W.J.Mander and Alan P.F.Sell, et al., eds., The Dictionary of Nineteenth-Century British Philosophers (Bristol, Thoemmes Press, 2002), AJPH, 49, 1 (2003), 141-142
• Bernard Crick, Crossing Borders: Political Essays (Lond., NY, Continuum, 2001), AJPH, 49, 3 (2003), 465-466
• Edwin Black, War Against the Weak: Eugenics and America’s Campaign to Create a Master Race (New York, London, Four Walls Eight Windows, 2003), AJPH, 51, 1 (2005), 144-145
• Erik S. Schmeller, Perceptions of Race and Nation in English and American Travel Writers, 1833-1914 (New York, Oxford, Peter Lang, 2004), AJPH, 52, 1 (2006), 161-162
• Janet Browne, Darwin’s “Origin of Species”: A Biography (Crow’s Nest, Allen and Unwin, 2006), AJPH, 53, 1 (2007), 160-161
• Azar Gat, War in Human Civilization (Oxford University Press, 2006), AJPH, 54, 1 (2008), 166-167
• John Harris, Enhancing Evolution: The Ethical Case for Making Better People (Princeton and Oxford, Princeton University Press, 2007), AJPH, 54, 3 (2008), 504-505
• Ronald Cole-Turner, ed., Design and Destiny: Jewish and Christian Perspectives on Human Germline Modification (Cambridge, Mass., and London, 2008), AJPH, 55, 1 (2009), 151-152
•  David Quammen, ed., Charles Darwin on the Origin of Species: The Illustrated Edition (New York, London, Sterling Publishing, 2008), AJPH, 55, 3 (2009), 472-473
• George Levine, Darwin Loves You: Natural Selection and the Re-Enchantment of the World (Princeton University Press, 2008), AJPH, 55, 3 (2009), 473-474
•  J. D. Green, The Passing of Protestant England: Secularisation and Social Change, c.1920-1960 (Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2011), AJPH, 58, 3 (2012), 471-472
• Jill Lepore, The Story of America: Essays on Origins (Princeton University Press, 2012), AJPH, 59, 1 (2013), 153-154
• Michel Pastoureau, translated by Janet Lloyd, The Colours of Our Memories (Cambridge, Polity, 2012), AJPH, 59, 1 (2013), 157-158
• Ian Ker, G. K. Chesterton: A Biography (Oxford University press, 2011), AJPH, 59, 3 (2013)

Click here to Download Paul Crook’s Curriculum Vitae