Margaret Canovan

{{Short description|English political theorist (1939–2018)}} {{Use dmy dates|date=November 2017}} {{Use British English|date=November 2017}} {{Refimprove|date=January 2019}} {{Infobox academic | honorific_prefix =  | name = | honorific_suffix = | image = Professor Margaret Canovan (original image).jpg | image_size = | alt = | caption = | native_name = | native_name_lang = | birth_name =  | birth_date = {{birth year|1939}} | birth_place = Carlisle, England | death_date = {{death date and age|2018|06|18|1939|1|1|df=y}} | death_place = Kirkcudbright, Scotland | death_cause = | other_names = | occupation = | period = | known_for = | title = | boards =  | spouse = {{marriage|James Canovan|1971}} | partner = | children = 1 | parents = | relatives = | awards =  | website = | education = | alma_mater = Girton College (University of Cambridge) | thesis_title = | thesis_url = | thesis_year = | school_tradition = | doctoral_advisor = | academic_advisors = | influences =  | era = | discipline =  | sub_discipline =  | workplaces = Lancaster University (1964–1971)<br/>Keele University (1974–2002) | doctoral_students =  | notable_students = | main_interests = {{hlist|Nationalism|totalitarianism|populism}} | notable_works = | notable_ideas = | influenced =  | signature = | signature_alt = | signature_size = | footnotes = }} '''Margaret Canovan''' (1939–2018) was an English author and political theorist.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.lancaster.ac.uk/alumni/in-memoriam/|title=In Memoriam|website=www.lancaster.ac.uk|language=en|access-date=2019-11-21}}</ref>

Born in Carlisle in 1939, Canovan studied history at Girton College, Cambridge, where she completed a PhD on 18th Century scientist and philosopher Joseph Priestley. She became a professor in the Politics Department at Lancaster University not long after its inception, later moving to Keele University where she remained until her retirement in 2002.

Canovan published several books but is perhaps best known for her work on historian and political theorist Hannah Arendt, particularly after accessing Arendt's unpublished papers in the late 1980s. Her book ''Hannah Arendt: A Reinterpretation of Her Political Thought'' (1992) was described by Gordon Tolle in ''The Review of Politics'' as "an excellent and comprehensive explanation of how Arendt's political theory emerges out of her early struggle to understand the new phenomenon of totalitarianism".<ref>''The Review of Politics'', Vol. 56, No. 2 (Spring, 1994), pp. 378-380)</ref>

Her later work on nationalism was also received with international acclaim. Steven Engel noted that "Canovan's book distinguishes itself in that its aim is 'to argue that questions of nationhood are not an optional extra for political theory, but should actually be at the heart of the discipline' ".<ref>''The Review of Politics'', Vol. 59, No. 2 (Spring, 1997), pp. 384-386</ref> Bernard Yack credits Canovan with arguing that "national loyalties help liberals establish a sense of intergenerational continuity" that is difficult to establish via mere civic membership, and that this intergenerational "bond" is essential in maintaining "continuity and stability" in a democratic polity.<ref>Yack, Bernard, ''Nationalism and the Moral Psychology of Community.'' University of Chicago Press, 2012, p. 205.</ref> She published at least four essays on populism, and was regarded as a "true pioneer" in its study.<ref>{{cite journal|doi=10.1146/annurev-polisci-050317-070753|doi-access=free|title=Political Theory of Populism|year=2019|last1=Urbinati|first1=Nadia|journal=Annual Review of Political Science|volume=22|pages=111–127}}</ref>

==Selected works== Canovan's books include:

* ''The Political Thought of Hannah Arendt'' (1974) * ''G. K. Chesterton'' (1978) * ''Populism'' (1981) * ''Hannah Arendt: A Reinterpretation of Her Political Thought'' (1992) * ''Nationhood and Political Theory'' (1996) * ''The People'' (2005)

==References== <references />

==External links== {{Keele University|state=expanded}} {{Lancaster University|state=collapsed}} {{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Canovan, Margaret}} Category:Academics of Keele University Category:Academics of Lancaster University Category:Alumni of Girton College, Cambridge Category:English political philosophers Category:People from Carlisle, Cumbria Category:Scholars of nationalism Category:Populism scholars Category:1939 births Category:2018 deaths Category:British women political scientists