Clapham, John Harold

Clapham, John Harold 

Born Sept. 13, 1873, in Bruton, Lancashire; died Mar. 29, 1946, in Cambridge. English historian and specialist in the economic history of Great Britain.

Clapham’s works deal with the development of various branches of production and finance and with demographic and social processes. His alleged objectivity (he aims at providing material for any conception, carefully avoiding generalizations) in actuality has an anti-Marxist bias. Clapham sought to “dispel” myths, by which he meant ideas about the negative social consequences of the development of capitalism, particularly the worsening of the workers’ economic position in a time of industrial upheaval. He ignored the true picture of the development of monopolies and finance capital in the period of imperialism.

WORKS

An Economic History of Modern Britain, vols. 1–3. Cambridge, 1926–39.
The Study of Economic History. Cambridge, 1929.