Miliband, Ralph

Ralph Miliband, the political scientist and socialist, was born in Belgium of Jewish parents on 7 January 1924. He and his father fled to London in 1940 as the German army was invading Belgium. Here he learned English and began to study at the London School of Economics (then exiled in Cambridge). After serving in the Royal Navy for three years he returned to his studies at LSE, graduated with first class honours, and then took a Ph.D. His first teaching post was at Roosevelt College, Chicago, but he then became a lecturer at LSE in 1949 until 1972, when he was appointed Professor of Politics at the University of Leeds. In 1977 he moved to North America, first to Brandeis University until 1985, then to York University, Toronto until 1988, and lastly to the graduate school of the City University of New York. He wrote a number of books on aspects of socialism, two of which, Parliamentary Socialism (1969) and The State in a Capitalist Society (1972), became classics in their field. Together with John Saville, in 1964 he founded the Socialist Register, and he espoused various socialist causes worldwide, including such bodies as the Council for Academic Freedom and Democracy, the Centres for Socialist Education, the Centres for Marxist Education, and the Lipman Trust. He also had a lifelong friendship and correspondence with Marcel Liebman of Brussels. At the time of his death on 21 May 1994 he was awaiting the publication of a further book, Socialism for a Sceptical Age .

From the guide to the Correspondence and papers of Ralph Miliband, 1940-2002, (Leeds University Library)