Benjamin Farrington

Benjamin Farrington
A 1940 photograph of Farrington as he appeared on The Challenge of Socialism
Born	(1891-07-10)10 July 1891
Died	17 November 1974(1974-11-17) (aged 83)
Political party	Communist Party of Great Britain (1936 - 1956)
Spouse	Ruth Schechter
Academic background
Alma mater	University College Cork Trinity College Dublin
Academic work
Discipline	Classical Studies
Sub-discipline	Greek History
Institutions	Queen's University Belfast University of Cape Town University College, Swansea
Main interests	Materialism Humanism

Benjamin Farrington (10 July 1891^[1] –17 November 1974^[2]) was an Irish scholar and professor of Classics, teaching in Ireland (1916–1920), South Africa (1920–1935), and Great Britain (1935–1956). Although his academic career spanned several disciplines, he is most well known for his contributions to the history of Greek science. Moreover, within the development of the discipline, his books were some of the first written in the English language that focused specifically on Greek science.^[3] In addition to his professional academic career he was also active in socialist politics, using his intellectual capabilities to speak and write on it. While beginning his academic career in South Africa in 1920 he became heavily involved in the Irish Republican Association of South Africa. In the process he wrote several articles for local South African newspapers about the need for Ireland to separate from England. In addition, he was instrumental in forming the Irish Peace Conference in Paris in 1922.^[4] Such political commitments inevitably influenced his teaching style, giving him the reputation in South Africa of being an intellectual Marxist.^[5] However, from the perspective of some critics, his Marxist commitments overshadowed his scholarly work, heavily tainting them. One of his better known pamphlets on socialism, written in 1940, is The Challenge of Socialism.^[6]