Raphael samuel biography bible

British historian (1934–1996)

Raphael Elkan Samuel (26 December 1934 – 9 December 1996) was a British Marxist historian, described by Stuart Hall as "one of the most outstanding, original intellectuals of his generation".^[1] He was professor of history at the University of East London at the time of his death and also taught at Ruskin College from 1962 until his death.^[2]

Life

Samuel was born into a Jewish family in London.

His father, Barnett Samuel, was a solicitor and his mother, Minna Nerenstein, was at various times composer and partner in Jewish publishers Shapiro, Valentine.^[3] Samuel joined the Communist Party of Great Britain when a teenager and left following the Soviet Union's invasion of Hungary in 1956.^[4]

Samuel was a member of the Communist Party Historians Group from a young age, alongside E.

P. Thompson, Eric Hobsbawm and others, and would later study at Balliol College, Oxford under