Former History Prof., Activist Hughes Dies at 83

Former Harvard Gurney Professor of History Henry Stuart Hughes, a leader in the field of European intellectual history and a nuclear disarmament activist, died in San Diego of pneumonia on Thursday. He was 83.

In addition to teaching history at Harvard, Hughes was one of six founders of the Standing Committee on Social Studies in 1960, which created a new concentration to broaden social science students' knowledge beyond narrow specialties.

"When we founded Social Studies, we were looking for people with a breadth of knowledge and Hughes was an obvious choice," said Buttenwieser University Professor Stanley H. Hoffmann, the department's first chair and one of its founders.

Hughes taught at Harvard from 1948 to 1952 and from 1957 to 1975. He left Harvard in 1975 to take a teaching position at the University of California at San Diego, where he became a professor emeritus in 1986.

Hughes was an expert on modern European history, specializing in European intellectual history.

"He was the major intellectual historian of his generation," said Coolidge Professor of History David G. Blackbourn, who teaches European history.

Harvard has been without a tenured professor on European intellectual history since Hughes' departure.

"We in the social studies department regret his death and fondly remember what he did," said Social Studies Department Chair and Government Professor Seyla Benhabib.

According to Hoffmann, Hughes left his position at Harvard after his wife, Judith M. Hughes, who was an associate history professor, did not receive tenure. San Diego offered both Hughes and his wife tenured positions.

"His departure was a loss for the university," Hoffmann said. "He was a very good lecturer."

Hughes also taught at Brown in 1940 and 1941 and at Stanford from 1952 to 1957, where he was chair of the history department.

He earned his Ph.D. in history from Harvard in 1940 after graduating summa cum laude from Amherst College in 1937.

Consciousness and Society (1958), one of Hughes' 11 books on European history, is considered a classic of intellectual history by historians, according to Hoffmann.

Hughes' Contemporary Europe: A History (1961) has been widely used as the standard text for European history courses.

"He's one of the old-style intellectual historians who wrote big books easy for the general public to understand," Blackbourn said.

In 1997, Hughes received the American Historical Association's Award for Scholarly Distinction, given to historians of "the highest distinction." He was also commended by the Italian government for his work in Italian history.

Hughes was not only a noted intellectual--he was also revered for his activism.

Alongside Dr. Benjamin M. Spock, Hughes co-chaired the National Committee for a Sane Nuclear Policy (SANE), a group worried about the massive worldwide nuclear arms buildup during the Cold War and nuclear weapon testing.

The group warned the public in a 1962 full-page New York Times advertisement that nuclear radiation was appearing in American mother's breast milk, posing a major danger for children.

On a pro-disarmament platform, Hughes ran in Massachusetts as an independent candidate for U.S. Senate in the 1962 race against Democrat Edward M. Kennedy '54-'56.

In 1967, Hughes became chair of SANE, a position which he held until 1970.

Hoffmann, who called Hughes a beatnik, said Hughes was one of the few Harvard professors to publicly object to the war.

Hughes' action against the war was deliberate and well-thought-out, according to Hoffman; for example, he did not support the students' actions of disrupting classes.

His controversial views drew the attention of the U.S. government. When Hughes went on sabbatical to Europe in 1966, the FBI requested that U.S. State Department embassies keep tabs on his activities. After the request became public, the ensuing outrage prompted the FBI to abandon the practice of embassy surveillance.

A World War II veteran, Hughes served in the Office of Strategic Services and the Army. He also served as chief of European research for the U.S. State Department for two years after the war.

Hughes is survived by his wife of 35 years, three children and five grandchildren.

"The man was a very elegant gentleman," Hoffmann said.

His memorial service will be held Nov. 12 in San Diego.