author
C. H. (Charles Harding) Firth
1857–1936
A leading historian of seventeenth-century England, this Oxford scholar became especially known for his work on the English Civil War, the Commonwealth, and Oliver Cromwell. He also helped shape how history was taught, arguing for close work with original documents rather than secondhand summaries.
1 Audiobook
Oliver Cromwell and the Rule of the Puritans in England
by C. H. (Charles Harding) Firth
About the author
Born in Sheffield in 1857, he studied at Clifton College and then at Oxford, first at New College and later at Balliol, where he earned top honors in history. After an early period teaching at Firth College in Sheffield, he returned to Oxford in 1883 and spent most of the rest of his career there.
His reputation was built on deeply researched studies of seventeenth-century England. He worked closely with the historian S. R. Gardiner, edited important historical texts, and wrote widely on the English Civil War, parliamentary history, and Oliver Cromwell. In 1904 he became Regius Professor of Modern History at Oxford, and he was also one of the founders of the Historical Association in 1906.
Remembered as a careful, source-driven scholar, he encouraged students and readers to understand the people of the past through original evidence as well as narrative history. He died in Oxford in 1936, leaving behind a body of work that remained important to later historians of early modern Britain.