My former college tutor Larry Siedentop, who has died aged 88, was a political thinker specialising within the research of western liberalism and democracy.
Probably the most broadly learn of his books was Democracy in Europe (2000), in which he argued that if the European Union had been a state wanting to affix the EU bloc, it will have been rejected as insufficiently democratic. From a pro-EU place he advocated for reform, and warned that with out change there may very well be grave penalties – as there have been, with the Brexit referendum of 2016.
Larry’s different books included Inventing the Particular person: The Origins of Western Liberalism (2015) and a biography of the French liberal thinker Alexis de Tocqueville (1994).
He was born in Chicago, Illinois, to Russell, a purchaser for Sunkist, the soft-drinks firm, and Dorothy (nee Olson), a instructor.
After attending Downers Grove highschool, Larry took a historical past diploma at Hope Faculty, Michigan, after which an MA at Harvard, earlier than transferring within the early Sixties to Oxford College, the place the thinker Isaiah Berlin supervised his doctorate.
Turning into a fellow at Nuffield Faculty, Oxford, in 1965, he then taught mental historical past at Sussex College. In 1973 he returned to Oxford, now as a lecturer and fellow at Keble Faculty, the place he was my tutor for PPE – philosopy, politics and economics. He remained there for 3 a long time till his retirement in 2003.
On the time of Larry’s arrival the faculty was considerably dreary. Girls wouldn’t be admitted for an additional six years, and undergraduates have been extra eager about listening to David Bowie and Roxy Music.
Larry, urbane and marinated in excessive tradition, appeared to have wafted in from the age of enlightenment, a dwelling philosophe. Weekly tutorials, typically one-to-one, have been held with a portrait of Jean-Jacques Rousseau gazing down at us.
Understandably, some undergraduates didn’t join. He was not at all times a simple individual; certainly even his closest pals reminisced good-humouredly about “the look” he would provide you with should you fell under his excessive requirements. On the launch of his final guide, Inventing the Particular person, his former pupil Ed Balls, an important admirer, was at his aspect.
Larry was knighted in 2016 for providers to political science. At his funeral we discovered that he was a Christian, or, no less than, that he had declared archly that he was a “fellow traveller”. The minister deftly distilled his political and spiritual sensibilities right into a single principle: we’re all equal, and we’re all beloved.
Larry is survived by his cousins within the US.
