Lawrence Stone
Encyclopedia
Lawrence Stone was an English
historian of early modern Britain. He is noted for his work on the English Civil War
and marriage
.
(1933–1938), the Sorbonne
(1938) and at Oxford
(1938-1940 & 1945-1946). During World War Two
, Stone served in the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve as a lieutenant.
Stone served as a don, not a professor at University College, Oxford
between 1947–1963, and was Dodge Professor of history at Princeton University
from 1963-1990. He often reviewed for the New York Review of Books. His son is documentary film
maker Robert Stone
. Other notable relatives include Alex Stone, also an academic historian, currently residing in Christchurch, New Zealand.
Stone was a major advocate of using the methods of the social sciences to study history. Stone argued that using quantitative methods to assemble data could lead to useful generalizations about different periods in time. However, Stone never argued in favor of creating "laws" of history in the manner of Karl Marx
or Arnold J. Toynbee
. In Stone's view, the most one could do was to create generalizations about a particular century and no more. Stone was very much interested in studying the mentalité of people in the early modern period along the lines of the Annales School
, but Stone rejected Fernand Braudel
's geographical theories as too simplistic. Along the same lines, Stone was much fond of combining history with anthropology
and offering "thick description" in the manner of Clifford Geertz
.
was demanding a social-science model of analysis, Stone detected a move in historiography
back toward the narrative. Stone defined narrative as follows: it is organized chronologically; it is focused on a single coherent story; it is descriptive rather than analytical; it is concerned with people not abstract circumstances; and it deals with the particular and specific rather than the collective and statistical. He reported that, "More and more of the 'new historians' are now trying to discover what was going on inside people's heads in the past, and what it was like to live in the past, questions which inevitably lead back to the use of narrative."
Stone's work was very controversial. To some, he was a radical trail-blazer, but to more conservative-minded historians, Stone's methods were a disgrace to the historical profession.
Stone's thesis that the British political elite was "closed" to new members has undergone important revision. Once widely accepted and popularized in works like Simon Schama
's survey of the French Revolution (Citizens), this view has recently been challenged. For instance, Ellis Wasson's Born to Rule: British Political Elites (2000) shows the ruling class to have been basically open to new members throughout the early modern period. Stone's claim is shown to have rested on insufficient quantitative evidence.
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
historian of early modern Britain. He is noted for his work on the English Civil War
English Civil War
The English Civil War was a series of armed conflicts and political machinations between Parliamentarians and Royalists...
and marriage
Marriage
Marriage is a social union or legal contract between people that creates kinship. It is an institution in which interpersonal relationships, usually intimate and sexual, are acknowledged in a variety of ways, depending on the culture or subculture in which it is found...
.
Biography
He was born in Epsom, Surrey and received his education at Charterhouse SchoolCharterhouse School
Charterhouse School, originally The Hospital of King James and Thomas Sutton in Charterhouse, or more simply Charterhouse or House, is an English collegiate independent boarding school situated at Godalming in Surrey.Founded by Thomas Sutton in London in 1611 on the site of the old Carthusian...
(1933–1938), the Sorbonne
University of Paris
The University of Paris was a university located in Paris, France and one of the earliest to be established in Europe. It was founded in the mid 12th century, and officially recognized as a university probably between 1160 and 1250...
(1938) and at Oxford
Oxford
The city of Oxford is the county town of Oxfordshire, England. The city, made prominent by its medieval university, has a population of just under 165,000, with 153,900 living within the district boundary. It lies about 50 miles north-west of London. The rivers Cherwell and Thames run through...
(1938-1940 & 1945-1946). During World War Two
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, Stone served in the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve as a lieutenant.
Stone served as a don, not a professor at University College, Oxford
University College, Oxford
.University College , is a constituent college of the University of Oxford in England. As of 2009 the college had an estimated financial endowment of £110m...
between 1947–1963, and was Dodge Professor of history at Princeton University
Princeton University
Princeton University is a private research university located in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. The school is one of the eight universities of the Ivy League, and is one of the nine Colonial Colleges founded before the American Revolution....
from 1963-1990. He often reviewed for the New York Review of Books. His son is documentary film
Documentary film
Documentary films constitute a broad category of nonfictional motion pictures intended to document some aspect of reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction or maintaining a historical record...
maker Robert Stone
Robert Stone (director)
Robert Stone is a British-American documentary filmmaker. His work has been screened at dozens of film festivals and televised around the world, notably several times on PBS's American Experience series. His most recent work is Earth Days , about the beginnings of the environmental movement in the...
. Other notable relatives include Alex Stone, also an academic historian, currently residing in Christchurch, New Zealand.
Ideas
Stone began as a medievalist, and his first book was the volume on medieval sculpture in Britain for what is now the Yale History of Art. He was a bold choice by the series editor, Nicholas Pevsner, but the book was well received. Stone's best known books were The Crisis of the Aristocracy, 1558-1641 and The Family, Sex and Marriage in England, 1500-1800. In the former, Stone made a detailed quantitative study of extensive data relating to the economic activities of the English aristocracy to conclude that there was a major economic crisis for the nobility in the 16th and 17th centuries.(This has since been undermined by Christopher Thompson's demonstration that the peerage's real income was higher in 1602 than in 1534 and grew substantially by 1641.) In the latter, Stone used the same quantitative methods to study family life. Stone's conclusion there was little love in English marriages before the 18th century left him open to devastating counter-attack from medievalists who pointed that Stone ignored the medieval period and there is ample evidence that there were many loving marriages before 1700. By the 1980s, Stone had abandoned his thesis.Stone was a major advocate of using the methods of the social sciences to study history. Stone argued that using quantitative methods to assemble data could lead to useful generalizations about different periods in time. However, Stone never argued in favor of creating "laws" of history in the manner of Karl Marx
Karl Marx
Karl Heinrich Marx was a German philosopher, economist, sociologist, historian, journalist, and revolutionary socialist. His ideas played a significant role in the development of social science and the socialist political movement...
or Arnold J. Toynbee
Arnold J. Toynbee
Arnold Joseph Toynbee CH was a British historian whose twelve-volume analysis of the rise and fall of civilizations, A Study of History, 1934–1961, was a synthesis of world history, a metahistory based on universal rhythms of rise, flowering and decline, which examined history from a global...
. In Stone's view, the most one could do was to create generalizations about a particular century and no more. Stone was very much interested in studying the mentalité of people in the early modern period along the lines of the Annales School
Annales School
The Annales School is a group of historians associated with a style of historiography developed by French historians in the 20th century. It is named after its scholarly journal Annales d'histoire économique et sociale, which remains the main source of scholarship, along with many books and...
, but Stone rejected Fernand Braudel
Fernand Braudel
Fernand Braudel was a French historian and a leader of the Annales School. His scholarship focused on three main projects, each representing several decades of intense study: The Mediterranean , Civilization and Capitalism , and the unfinished Identity of France...
's geographical theories as too simplistic. Along the same lines, Stone was much fond of combining history with anthropology
Anthropology
Anthropology is the study of humanity. It has origins in the humanities, the natural sciences, and the social sciences. The term "anthropology" is from the Greek anthrōpos , "man", understood to mean mankind or humanity, and -logia , "discourse" or "study", and was first used in 1501 by German...
and offering "thick description" in the manner of Clifford Geertz
Clifford Geertz
Clifford James Geertz was an American anthropologist who is remembered mostly for his strong support for and influence on the practice of symbolic anthropology, and who was considered "for three decades...the single most influential cultural anthropologist in the United States." He served until...
.
Narrative history
According to Stone, narrative is the main rhetorical device traditionally used by historians. In 1979, at a time when the new Social HistorySocial history
Social history, often called the new social history, is a branch of History that includes history of ordinary people and their strategies of coping with life. In its "golden age" it was a major growth field in the 1960s and 1970s among scholars, and still is well represented in history departments...
was demanding a social-science model of analysis, Stone detected a move in historiography
Historiography
Historiography refers either to the study of the history and methodology of history as a discipline, or to a body of historical work on a specialized topic...
back toward the narrative. Stone defined narrative as follows: it is organized chronologically; it is focused on a single coherent story; it is descriptive rather than analytical; it is concerned with people not abstract circumstances; and it deals with the particular and specific rather than the collective and statistical. He reported that, "More and more of the 'new historians' are now trying to discover what was going on inside people's heads in the past, and what it was like to live in the past, questions which inevitably lead back to the use of narrative."
Stone's work was very controversial. To some, he was a radical trail-blazer, but to more conservative-minded historians, Stone's methods were a disgrace to the historical profession.
Stone's thesis that the British political elite was "closed" to new members has undergone important revision. Once widely accepted and popularized in works like Simon Schama
Simon Schama
Simon Michael Schama, CBE is a British historian and art historian. He is a University Professor of History and Art History at Columbia University. He is best known for writing and hosting the 15-part BBC documentary series A History of Britain...
's survey of the French Revolution (Citizens), this view has recently been challenged. For instance, Ellis Wasson's Born to Rule: British Political Elites (2000) shows the ruling class to have been basically open to new members throughout the early modern period. Stone's claim is shown to have rested on insufficient quantitative evidence.
Works
- Sculpture in Britain: The Middle Ages, 1955, Penguin Books (now Yale History of Art)
- The Crisis of the Aristocracy, 1558-1641 (1965)
- The Causes of the English Revolution, 1529-1642' (1972)
- Family and Fortune: Studies in Aristocratic Finance in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries (1973)
- The Family, Sex and Marriage in England, 1500-1800 (1977)
- "The Revival of Narrative: Reflections on a New Old History," Past and Present 85 (Nov. 1979) pp 3–24
- The Past and the Present (1981)
- An Open Elite? England 1540-1880 (1984) with Jeanne C. Fawtier Stone,
- Road to Divorce: England, 1530-1987 (1990)
- Uncertain Unions: Marriage in England, 1660-1753 (1992)
- Broken Lives: Separation and Divorce in England, 1660-1857 (1993)
- An Imperial State at War: Britain from 1689 to 1815 (1994) editor