From Napoleon to the Second International: Essays on the 19th Century - Hardcover

Taylor, A. J. P.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0713991135 ISBN 13: 9780713991130

Publisher: Viking Adult, 1994

Synopsis

Contains essays selected from previous collections bringing together the author's best work on nineteenth-century British and continental European history

About this title

About the Author

A. J. P. Taylor is a lecturer in Modern History at Manchester University from 1930 to 1938, and from then until 1976 a Fellow of Magdalen College, Oxford, of which he became an Honorary Fellow.

From Booklist

One the finest and most controversial British historians of this century, A. J. P. Taylor forged his reputation in public frays as well as academic combats. This posthumous collection features numerous of his popular pieces, namely book reviews and radio broadcasts concerning nineteenth-century British and Continental politicians. They all partake of his attitude that only the uninteresting history goes unread. He not only revered accuracy in history but also respected the good historian-writer and devotes several essays to Macauley, Ranke, and even Thomas Carlyle, whose fading reputation received a stunning blow when it was learned that Hitler spent his last days reading Carlyle's life of Frederick the Great. Come to think of it, everything Taylor wrote about the Germans irked his English compatriots, especially his Bismarck biography and his Origins of the Second World War, or perhaps it was just Taylor's unabashed socialism. (In a piece here about the Tory organization, he labels it "The Thing.") Despite his political inclinations, Taylor curiously wrote in the most traditional of forms, diplomatic narrative and biography. He was unimpressed by any figure, no matter how eminent or notorious, and his suppleness of mind and originality of style are plainly evident in all these sketches. What a delight to range among such varied personalities as Castlereagh or Parnell in a single volume! Gilbert Taylor

Edition details

• Publisher: Viking Adult
• Publication date: 1994
• ISBN 10: 0713991135
• ISBN 13: 9780713991130
• Binding: Hardcover
• Language: English
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 448