Robert Oakeshott

The Quintessential English Eccentric

Kevin Shillington

• Publisher: Brown Dog Books
• Year: 2023
• Topic: History
• eBook ISBN:
  9781839525858
• Subtopic: Historical Biographies
• Index: History

Robert Oakeshott was of a man of humorous eccentricity and intoxicating discourse, a man of many lives. As an Oxford undergraduate in 1956 he hitch-hiked into Budapest at the height of the student-led revolution, carrying nothing but moral support and a suitcase of penicillin. Then foreign correspondent for the Financial Times, key development officer in Zambia at the time of independence, alternative educationist in Botswana. He founded a think tank in the UK to promote justice and fairness in the workplace through employee ownership, an economic model that he took to Eastern Europe in the 1990s. Simultaneously, he was a generous philanthropist who played a leading role in the founding of pioneering charities.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half-title Page
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Contents
• Dedication
• Acknowledgments
• Preface
• Chapter 1: Background and Childhood
• Chapter 2: Tonbridge School, 1946–1951
• Chapter 3: National Service, 1951–1953
• Chapter 4: The Oxford Years, 1953–1956
• Chapter 5: Eastern Europe, 1956
• Chapter 6: Into the Heart of the Revolution, 1956
• Chapter 7: Sunderland Echo, 1957–1958
• Chapter 8: Financial Times, 1958–1964
• Chapter 9: Zambia, 1964
• Chapter 10: Development Planning, 1964–1966
• Chapter 11: Politics and a New Beginning, 1966
• Chapter 12: Botswana, Education and Diamonds
• Chapter 13: Shashe River School, 1968–1971
• Chapter 14: Planning a Builders’ Cooperative, 1972–1973
• Chapter 15: Sunderlandia, 1973–1978
• Chapter 16: The Founding of Job Ownership Limited
• Chapter 17: The Growth of Employee Ownership
• Chapter 18: Spreading the Word
• Chapter 19: New Pathways
• Chapter 20: Robert Oakeshott – Memories
• Notes
• Index