Asa Briggs

Asa Briggs, Baron Briggs (born 7 May 1921) is a British historian, one of the most respected historians who has written on the Victorian era. In particular, his trilogy, Victorian People, Victorian Cities, and Victorian Things made a lasting mark on how historians view the nineteenth century. He was made a life peer in 1976.

Born in Keighley, West Yorkshire in 1921, he was educated at Keighley Boys' Grammar School before gaining a BA from Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge in 1941, and a BSc in Economics from the University of London External Programme, also in 1941.

From 1942 to 1945 during World War II, Briggs served in the Intelligence Corps and worked at the British wartime codebreaking station, Bletchley Park. He was a member of "the Watch" in Hut 6, the section deciphering Enigma machine messages from the German Army and Air Force.^[1]

After the War, he was elected a Fellow of Worcester College, Oxford (1945-55) and was subsequently appointed University Reader in Recent Social and Economic History (1950-55). He was Faculty Fellow of Nuffield College 1953-55 and a member of the Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton Township, New Jersey 1953-54.

From 1955 until 1961 he was Professor of Modern History at the University of Leeds. From 1961 until 1976 he was Professor of History at the University of Sussex, while also serving as Dean of the School of Social Studies (1961-65), Pro Vice-Chancellor (1961-67), and Vice-Chancellor (1967-76). On June 4 2008 the University of Sussex Arts A1 and A2 lecture theatres, designed by Basil Spence, were renamed in his honour.

In 1976 he returned to Oxford to become Provost of Worcester College until 1991.

He was Chancellor of the Open University 1978-1994 and has been an Honorary Fellow of Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge since 1968, of Worcester College, Oxford since 1969, and of St Catharine's College, Cambridge since 1977. He also held a visiting appointment at the Gannett Center for Media Studies, Columbia University in the late 1980s and again at the renamed Freedom Forum Media Studies Center at Columbia in 1995-96. In 1976 he was created a life peer as Baron Briggs, of Lewes in the County of East Sussex.

He has written a five-volume text on the history of broadcasting in the UK (essentially, the history of the BBC) from 1922 to 1974.

He married Susan Anne Banwell in 1955 and they have two sons and two daughters.

Contents 1 A Social History of the Media: From Gutenberg to the Internet 2 Select bibliography 3 References 4 External links

A Social History of the Media: From Gutenberg to the Internet

Asa Briggs, alongside Peter Bruke wrote this book in 2002 exploring the social impacts of the media. A particular focus within the book refers to the significant social impact that the printing press had on society, beginning important cultural changes.

Although criticism surrounded the invention of the printing press at the time, specifically relating to scribes losing their jobs and concern about the impact that would be placed on the government and church hierarchy, the printing press was an extremely important invention, with substantial social implications. As Brigs and Burke point out, the invention of the printing press impacted on occupations within European cities, changing the traditional structure. As the occupation of printers came to exist, so did a new a new social group. Similarly, jobs became available for proof readers, followed by a rise in book stores and positions available at libraries. Elizabeth Eisentein argues that the impact of the printing press has an underestimated “agent of change”. Eisentein dictated that “print standardised and preserved knowledge” and that the printing press stimulated new ideas, including the critique of authority and society, allowing for the establishment of a diversity of ideas and voices. Although print did not originate social change, it is considered a catalyst in assisting the process of cultural change within society, assisted by the continuously developing nature that the printing press had.

The printing press and what followed commercialised leisure, with reading being broken up into 5 kinds, as Briggs and Burke disscuss, “critical reading…dangerous reading…creative reading…extensive reading…private reading…”(Brigs and Burke, 2002).

Select bibliography

• The History of Broadcasting in the United Kingdom (Oxford University Press)
• The Age of Improvement, 1783-1867 (Harlow: Pearson, 1959, 2nd edn 2000)
• The Channel Islands, Occupation and Liberation 1940-1945, Batsford Books, London, ISBN 0-7134-7822-5
• A Social History of England
• Victorian People
• Victorian Cities
• Victorian Things
• Marx in London, An Illustrated Guide

Academic offices
Preceded by Baron Gardiner	Chancellor of the Open University 1978–1994	Succeeded by Betty Boothroyd
Preceded by Oliver Franks, Baron Franks	Provost of Worcester College, Oxford 1976–1991	Succeeded by Richard Smethurst

References

External links

• Works by or about Asa Briggs in libraries (WorldCat catalog)

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