Angus Calder Biography

Angus Lindsay Ritchie Calder (5 February 1942 – 5 June 2008) was a Scottish academic, writer, historian, educator and literary editor with a background in English literature, politics and cultural studies. He was a man of the Left, and in his highly influential book on the home front in the Second World War he complained bitterly that the postwar reforms of the Labour government, such as universal health care and nationalization of some industries, were an inadequate reward for the wartime sacrifices, and a cynical betrayal of the people's hope for a more just postwar society.

Angus Calder was born on 5 February 1942. His father, Lord Ritchie Calder (1906–1982), was a noted science writer, humanist and pacifist. His siblings are Nigel Calder, mathematician Allan Calder and educationist Isla Calder (1946–2000). His nephew is Simon Calder.

Calder read English literature at King's College, Cambridge, and wrote a doctorate at the University of Sussex, on politics in the United Kingdom during World War II. His book, The People's War: Britain 1939–1945, was published in 1969.