Macaulay: The Tragedy of Power

On the 150th anniversary of the death of the English historian and politician Thomas Babington Macaulay, Robert Sullivan offers a portrait of a Victorian life that probes the cost of power, the practice of empire, and the impact of ideas.

His Macaulay is a Janus-faced master of the universe: a prominent spokesman for abolishing slavery in the British Empire who cared little for the cause, a forceful advocate for reforming Whig politics but a Machiavellian realist, a soaring parliamentary orator who avoided debate, a self-declared Christian, yet a skeptic and a secularizer of English history and culture, and a stern public moralist who was in love with his two youngest sisters.

Perhaps best known in the West for his classic History of England, Macaulay left his most permanent mark on South Asia, where his penal code remains the law. His father ensured that ancient Greek and Latin literature shaped Macaulay’s mind, but he crippled his heir emotionally. Self-defense taught Macaulay that power, calculation, and duplicity rule politics and human relations. In Macaulay’s writings, Sullivan unearths a sinister vision of progress that prophesied twentieth-century genocide. That the reverent portrait fashioned by Macaulay’s distinguished extended family eclipsed his insistent rhetoric about race, subjugation, and civilizing slaughter testifies to the grip of moral obliviousness.

Devoting his huge talents to gaining power—above all for England and its empire—made Macaulay’s life a tragedy. Sullivan offers an unsurpassed study of an afflicted genius and a thoughtful meditation on the modern ethics of power.

"On the 150th anniversary of his death, the great British historian Thomas Babington Macaulay (1800 — 1859) remains an enigmatic character, steeped in contradictions between his actions, his proclamations and his interior life. The latter is not Sullivan's central concern. Thus, the concealed love Macaulay felt for his two youngest sisters is not far developed here. Sullivan concentrates instead on Macaulay's uncanny understanding of England's grand position in the world. The author observes that 'long before Henry Kissinger, [Macaulay] understood that 'power is the ultimate aphrodisiac.' ' What makes him a unusual figure for our time is his classicism — his chief models being Herodotus, Thucydides, Tacitus — as well as his position as a bestseller with a multivolume history of England. Macaulay's literary interests included Milton, Dryden, Byron and Bacon, but Machiavelli was the overriding influence, says Sullivan, a historian and associate vice president of Notre Dame. Macaulay detested Dickens for his socialistic smarminess; he anticipated Ivan Pavlov more than Sigmund Freud; and he was an abolitionist who didn't believe in abolishing slavery. Overall, Macaulay remains a confounding figure, whose personality lies largely unraveled. 18 b&w illus." Publishers Weekly (Copyright Reed Business Information, Inc.)

Sullivan (history, U. of Notre Dame) has written a powerful story of the influential historian and statesman, mining his youth and private journals to reveal a deeply troubled, tragic figure, whose upright public persona hid someone whose virtue was problematic, whose religious belief was lacking, and whose disdain for the uneducated was one sign of a general lack of compassion that ultimately had a broad impact through the widespread influence of his writing and teaching. Sullivan maintains a hold on the threads of Macaulay's complex personal qualities as he describes the intricate political and academic world in which he moved. The writing of his magnum opus, The history of England, and its reception are central themes. Belknap Press is an imprint of Harvard U. Press. Annotation ©2010 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Robert E. Sullivan is Associate Professor of History and Associate Vice President, University of Notre Dame.

• Contents
• Introduction

1. Heir
2. Star
3. Legislator
4. Sinister Prophet
5. Statesman
6. Empire Builder
7. The Last Ancient Historian
8. The Lion
9. Baron Macaulay of Rothley
10. Procrastinator
11. Praeceptor Gentis Anglorum
12. A Broken Heart

• Envoi: Immortal
• Abbreviations
• Notes
• Acknowledgments
• Index