v Primary Sources v

Edward Hallett Carr was born in 1892. He studied Classics at Cambridge University and during the First World War was recruited by the British Foreign Office.

In 1939 Carr published The Twenty Year Crisis. In this book he argued that Neville Chamberlain was right to adopt a policy of appeasement. Soon after the book was published the German Army invaded Poland. Despite his perceived pro-Nazi views, Carr was recruited by The Times.

During the Second World War Carr gradually changed his views and by 1944 took a strong pro-Soviet position. After the war he left the newspaper and joined the staff at Trinity College, Cambridge. He also began writing the 14 volume A History of the Soviet Union. His most popular work, What is History?, appeared in 1961.

Edward Hallett Carr died of cancer on 5th November, 1982.

^ Main Article ^

(1) E. H. Carr, The Twenty Year Crisis (1939)

Having demolished the current utopia with the weapons of realism, we still need to build a new utopia of our own, which will one day fall to the same weapons. The human will will continue to seek escape from the logical consequences of realism in the vision of an international order which, as soon as it crystallizes itself into concrete political form, becomes tainted with self-interest and hypocrisy, and once more be attacked with the instruments of realism.