The Life and Thought of Herbert Butterfield
History, Science and God

Bentley's revelatory 2011 biography illuminates for the first time the intellectual significance and personal torment of the historian Sir Herbert Butterfield.

Michael Bentley (Author)

9781107003972, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 21 April 2011

398 pages
23.5 x 16 x 2.5 cm, 0.76 kg

'… an excellent, revealing, entertaining and well-written account of one of the twentieth century's major historians.' Frank A. J. L. James, The British Journal for the History of Science

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 2011 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.

Part I. Private Intellectual, 1900–45: 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, 1945–79: 10. Height of his powers
11. From history to historiography
12. From diplomatic history to international relations
13. From autumn to winter.

Subject Areas: 20th century history: c 1900 to c 2000 [HBLW], British & Irish history [HBJD1], Historiography [HBAH]