Synopses & Reviews
Once recalled only for The Whig Interpretation of History (1931) and Christianity and History (1949), Sir Herbert Butterfield's contribution to western culture has undergone an astonishing revaluation over the past twenty years. What has been left out of this reappraisal is the man himself. Yet the force of Butterfield's writings is weakened without some knowledge of the man behind them: his temperament, contexts and personal torments. Previous authors have been unable to supply a rounded portrait for lack of available material, particularly a dearth of sources for the crucial period before the outbreak of war in 1939. Michael Bentley's original, startling biography draws on sources never seen before. They enable him to present a new Butterfield, one deeply troubled by self-doubt, driven by an urgent sexuality and plagued by an unending tension between history, science and God in a mind as hard and cynical as it was loving and charitable.
Review
'An exceptional book ... This is a very fine work of historical scholarship. If Cambridge University Press books are available in heaven (could it be heaven without them?) then Herbert Butterfield should feel vindicated, and deeply grateful for such a remarkable biographer.' Reform Magazine
Review
'Michael Bentley has written a fascinating study of Herbert Butterfield.' Jonathan Haslam, The Guardian
Synopsis
Bentley's revelatory biography illuminates for the first time the intellectual significance and personal torment of the historian Sir Herbert Butterfield.
Synopsis
Michael Bentley's revelatory biography of the major Christian thinker and historian Sir Herbert Butterfield draws on hitherto unseen private sources. They enable him to present a new Butterfield, one deeply troubled by self-doubt, driven by an urgent sexuality and plagued by an unending tension between history, science and God.
About the Author
Michael Bentley is Professor of Modern History at the University of St Andrews and well-known internationally to scholars interested in the history of historical writing. His Companion to Historiography (1997) and popular short guide, Modern Historiography: An Introduction (1999) have become bench texts for courses in historiography. Recently awarded a Leverhulme Major Research Fellowship, Professor Bentley is currently writing a comparative analysis of Western historiography since the Enlightenment.
Table of Contents
Part I. Private Intellectual, 1900-1945: 1. Bronte country; 2. Peterhouse and Princeton; 3. Love, marriage and 'the sex question'; 4. Thinking man's historian; 5. European civilisation and the Third Reich; 6. Wartime ambiguities; Part II. Contours of an Original Mind: 7. Science; 8. God; 9. History; Part III. Public Intellectual, 1945-1979: 10. Height of his powers; 11. From history to historiography; 12. From diplomatic history to international relations; 13. From autumn to winter.