Edvard Bull Sr.

He was born on 4 December 1881, in Kristiania as the son of chief physician Edvard Isak Hambro Bull (1845–1925) and his wife Ida Marie Sofie Paludan (1861–1957). He was a brother of theatre director Johan Peter Bull, literary professor Francis Bull and genealogist Theodor Bull. He was also a nephew of military officer Karl Sigwald Johannes Bull, grandnephew of Anders Sandøe Ørsted Bull, great-grandson of Georg Jacob Bull and great-great-grandson of Chief Justice Johan Randulf Bull. In July 1909, he married Lucie Juliane Antonette Voss (1886–1970). Their son Edvard Bull, Jr. became a notable historian. ==Academic career==

Bull finished his secondary education in 1899, and studied in classical philology, geography and history at the University of Kristiania. He graduated in 1906 with the cand.mag. degree—by that time he had already published his first academic work. A study trip in Germany and France from 1906 to 1907 spurred his interest of medieval Catholicism. He planned on writing a larger work incorporating church history. He released the paper Bods- og skriftevæsenet i den norske kirke i middelalderen in 1909, and expanded upon this work to publish his doctoral thesis Folk og kirke i middelalderen. Studier til Norges historie in 1912. The work earned him the dr.philos. degree. He had been employed as a research fellow at the University of Kristiania since 1910, and became a lecturer in 1913. In 1917, he succeeded the deceased Ernst Sars as a professor. Following the early deaths of Gran and Krogvig, Einar Jansen was brought in to assist Bull. Bull was also a consultant for the Norwegian Nobel Committee from 1914 to 1918. From 1927 to 1932, he chaired the Norwegian Historical Association. Despite influences from Karl Lamprecht and Werner Sombart, Bull clearly drew most of his inspiration from Karl Marx' historical materialism. Publications in this vein include Karl Marx (1918) and Den russiske arbeider- og bonderevolution (1922). He also wrote purely political articles and pamphlets. ==Political career==

While studying, Bull became acquainted with radical politicians like Emil Stang, Jr., Jakob Friis and Kyrre Grepp. He became active in the Norwegian Labour Party around 1915, and was a driving force behind the molding of the Labour Party into a revolutionary workers' party towards the end of the 1910s. He was known both as a party ideologist and speaker, editing the party magazine Det tyvende Aarhundrede from 1918 to 1920 and 1927 to 1928, but also as a day-to-day politician, serving on the school board of Kristiania from 1916 to 1925 and as a member of the city council from 1919 to 1925. He was both preceded and succeeded by people who were also Prime Ministers; Ivar Lykke and Johan Ludwig Mowinckel. This defeat pushed the Labour Party in a revolutionary direction once again. Bull was among the writers of the party manifesto for the 1930 general election, which was more radical. However, this tactic caused a significant loss in the election. Historians generally agree that from this point, the Labour Party decisively drifted away from the revolutionary rhetoric and policies. Labour politicians formed a cabinet again in 1935, and more or less held power until 1965, except for the war years 1940 to 1945 when Germany occupied Norway as well as a month in 1963, when a right-winged cabinet held office. ==Death==

Bull, however, would not live to see any of this, as he died from a brain tumor on 26 August 1932, aged 50. This meant that he did not release further volumes of Det norske folks liv og historie, as he had planned. Volume three of Kristianias historie was underway, but was not finished. V. Sønstevold completed and published it in 1937. ==References==