Editing Manning Clark (section)

==Early life==
Clark was born in [[Sydney]] on 3 March 1915,<ref>The basic facts of Clark's life and career are given in Stephen Holt, ''A Short History of Manning Clark'', Allen and Unwin 1999, and in Bridge's introduction to ''Manning Clark'', 2–9</ref> the son of the Reverend Charles Clark, an English-born [[Anglican Church of Australia|Anglican]] priest from a working-class background (he was the son of a London carpenter), and Catherine Hope, who came from an old Australian establishment family. On his mother's side he was a descendant of the Reverend [[Samuel Marsden]], the "flogging parson" of early colonial [[New South Wales]]. Clark had a difficult relationship with his mother, who never forgot her superior social origins, and came to identify her with the [[Protestant]] middle class he so vigorously attacked in his later work.<ref>Miriam Dickson, "Clark and national identity", in Carl Bridge (editor), ''Manning Clark: Essays on his Place in History'', Melbourne University Press 1994, p. 195.</ref> Charles held various curacies in Sydney including [[St Andrew's Cathedral, Sydney]], and [[St John's, Ashfield]], where Catherine was a Sunday School teacher.<ref name="MarkMcKenna1">{{cite book|first=Mark|last=Mckenna|title=An Eye For Eternity: The Life of Manning Clark|date=October 2012|pages=50–52}}</ref> The family moved to [[Melbourne]] when Clark was a child;<ref>{{harvnb|Holt|1999|p=6}} The move was the result of Charles Clark's hasty departure from his parish in [[Kempsey, New South Wales|Kempsey]], where he had been having an affair with the family's maid, by whom he had a daughter. This scandal, unspoken but always present, haunted Clark's childhood.</ref> and lived in what one biographer describes as "genteel poverty" on the modest income of an Anglican vicar.

Clark's happiest memories of his youth were of the years 1922–1924, when his father was the vicar of [[Phillip Island]], south-east of Melbourne, where he acquired the love of fishing and of [[cricket]], which he retained for the rest of his life. He was educated at state schools at [[Cowes, Victoria|Cowes]] and [[Belgrave, Victoria|Belgrave]], and then at [[Melbourne Grammar School]],<ref>{{Cite web |title=Professor Charles Manning Hope Clark AC {{!}} Melbourne Grammar School |url=https://mgs.vic.edu.au/about/our-people/meet-our-alumni/professor-charles-manning-hope-clark-ac |access-date=2024-10-03 |website=mgs.vic.edu.au}}</ref> where he was a boarder in School House. Here, as an introspective boy from a modest background, he suffered from ridicule and bullying, and acquired a lifelong dislike for the sons of the Melbourne [[upper class]] who had tormented him and others at this school.<ref>{{harvnb|Holt|1999|p=149}} Clark nevertheless sent his sons to Melbourne Grammar</ref> His later school years, however, were happier. He discovered a love of [[literature]] and the classics, and became an outstanding student of [[Ancient Greek|Greek]], [[Latin]] and history (British and European). In 1933 he was equal [[Dux#Education|dux]] of the school.{{Sfn|Holt|1999|p=12}}

As a result, Clark won a scholarship to [[Trinity College (University of Melbourne)|Trinity College]] at the [[University of Melbourne]]. Here he thrived, gaining firsts in ancient history and British history and captaining the college cricket team. In his second year he gained firsts in constitutional and legal history and in modern political institutions. One of his teachers, [[William Macmahon Ball|W. Macmahon Ball]], one of Australia's leading [[political scientists]] of this period, made a deep impression on him. By this time he had lost his [[Christianity|Christian]] faith but was not attracted to any of the secular alternatives on offer. His writings as a student explicitly rejected both [[socialism]] and communism.<ref>{{harvnb|Holt|1999|p=20}} Holt notes: "The [Communist] party refused to countenance the slightest differences of opinion, which was anathema to Clark's delicately honed sense of individuality... Individual communists gave off a pervasive sense of smugness. Faith in [[Stalin]]'s omniscience meant that they lacked a healthy sense of human fallibility".</ref> At this point Clark's political views continuously shifted from liberalism to a type of moderate socialism.  His favourite writers at this time were [[Fyodor Dostoyevsky]] and [[T. S. Eliot]], and his favourite historian was the conservative [[Thomas Carlyle]].  In terms of his evolving political views, a few years later, around 1944, Clark became a socialist of moderate views, a political position he maintained for the rest of his adult life, with political sympathies broadly placed on the Left and with the [[Australian Labor Party]].<ref>M. McKenna, ''An Eye for Eternity'', 245. Clark's post-1944 political views: 'I believe socialism is the best organisation...I do not like the consequences of our [present social] organisation – war, poverty, waste...the bourgeoisie [are not humane], they have no want for men and women who are distressed'</ref>

In 1937 Clark won a scholarship to [[Balliol College, Oxford|Balliol College]], [[University of Oxford|Oxford]], and left Australia in August 1938. Among his teachers at Oxford were [[Hugh Trevor-Roper]] (a conservative), [[Christopher Hill (historian)|Christopher Hill]] (at that time a communist) and [[A.&nbsp;J. P. Taylor]] (a moderate socialist). He won acceptance by excelling at cricket – playing for the [[Oxford University Cricket Club|Oxford XI]] and competing alongside [[Edward Heath]] and [[Roy Jenkins]]. He began a master of arts thesis on [[Alexis de Tocqueville]] (he finally submitted it in 1947, and it was published in 2000).<ref>[[Bruce Juddery]], "Nation loses people of history", ''The Canberra Times'', 20 May 2000, P. C7</ref> Through basically sympathetic towards de Tocqueville's liberalism, Clark wrote that his political vision for a just society was flawed by his ignorance of the misery of the masses and by his unwillingness to consider force to ensure justice.{{Sfn|Hughes-Warrington|2000|p=33}}

At Oxford in the late 1930s he shared the Left's horror of [[fascism]] – which he had seen first hand during a visit to [[Nazi Germany]] in 1938 – but was not attracted to the communism which was prevalent among undergraduates at the time. His exposure to Nazism and Fascism in 1938 made him more pessimistic and sceptical about the state of European civilisation.  However, he was not attracted to the Left's emancipatory process of socialist revolution and favoured, instead, a [[capitalist]], [[social democratic]] and [[democratic socialist]] approach.{{Sfn|Holt|1999|p=36}} At Oxford also he suffered the social snubs commonly experienced by "colonials" at that time, which was apparently the source of his lifelong dislike of the [[English people|English]].<ref>Dickson in Carl Bridge, ''Manning Clark'', 195. Examples of Clark's Anglophobia are given in Peter Ryan, "Manning Clark," ''Quadrant'', August 1993, 9</ref> In 1939 in Oxford he married [[Dymphna Clark|Dymphna Lodewyckx]], the daughter of a [[Flanders|Flemish]] intellectual and a formidable scholar in her own right, with whom he had six children.