Raphael Samuel, who died tragically of cancer at the end of last year, was one of the outstanding social historians of post-war Britain. A founding figure of the History Workshop movement as a tutor at Ruskin College, he went on with others from that movement to found the History Workshop Journal in 1976. He was also series editor, as well as an editor and author, for the 30 or so books published in the History Workshop Series between 1975 and 1991.