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1st edn. 8vo. Original gilt lettered black cloth (Fine), dustwrapper (Fine in protective wrapper). Pp. x + 132 (previous owner's annotations to margins and rear endpaper). Historians on Historians.
144 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1988
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About the author
Hugh Tulloch
9 books1 followerHugh Tulloch was Senior Lecturer in American History at Bristol University from 1971 until 2003.
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December 15, 2017
Hugh Tulloch, PhD Cambridge and professor of history at Bristol paints an entertaining picture of one of the greatest historians of the modern era.
The book is divided into five chapters:
1) The Reputation
2) The Catholic
3) The Liberal Catholic
4) The Liberal
5) The Historian
Aside from the first chapter, which attempts to situate Acton as an important historical figure, the remaining chapters move roughly through a chronological development in Acton's thought and personality.
Much of the book verges on hagiography and it is difficult to separate Acton's positions from those of Tulloch. Though Tulloch does a decent job situating Acton, particularly in the theological discussions of the 19th century (regarding Manning and Newman, along with the first Vatican Council) he also makes Acton into his own version of an historian, abandoning apologetics and Catholicism in the pursuit of truth. The case of H. C. Lea being a clear case in point, where the Black Legend was challenged by Acton's defense of the Spanish inquisition, then replaced by Lea's critique, only to have the pendulum swing again back in favour of the inquisition (or at least against the absurd excessive claims) in Kamen's revision.
Some memorable quotes (both from Tulloch and Acton) include:
"Because he distinguished between the visible and the invisible Church, the outward shell of variable opinion and the inward core of irreversable dogma, he could severely chastise authority, he never suffered the agonizing doubts of Newman or Manning who, on conversion, were less critical of their faith precisely because it constituted their ultimate refuge from too much questioning. Acton's unshakeable certitude set no limits to questioning." (Tulloch, p. 20)
"Granville complained of his stepson's rapidly expanding library, of books piling up in spare rooms and taking over bedrooms." (Tulloch, p. 23)
"No Catholic is as good as his religion. It is the only case in which there is not the slightest inducement to represent friends and enemies otherwise than as they are. Hence perfect impartiality is possible only among Catholics." (Acton, p. 29)
"'Tolerance of error is requisite for freedom,' he wrote, 'but freedom will be most complete where there is no actual diversity to be resisted, and no theoretical unity to be maintained, but where unity exists as the triumph of truth, not of force, through the victory of the Church, not through the enactment of the State.'" (Acton, 31)
"The Church is not the enemy of falsehood, but indirectly, though necessarily, the promoter of all knowledge. She not only does not fear its increase, but desires it." (Acton, p. 36)
"For if Newman was liberal by temperment his liberality rested on a theoretical authoritarianism. Acton, in contrast, was dogmatic in character and a doctrinaire liberal, and this was the source of all the difficulties surrounding their long relationship." (Tulloch, p. 41-42)
"In was not just the Council's concentration of spiritual powers in Papal hands, its destruction of freedoms within the Church, its wholesate rejection of reform, nor even its explicit rejection of a genuine ecumenicalism which concerned Acton. Even more threatening was its denial of history..." (Tulloch, p. 55)
"His intellectual ingenuity was no substitute for an instictive lack of a political nous. Too clever by half, he frequently miscalculated by endowing his opponents with a greater complexity than they possessed and consequently lost by playing a game quite different from their own." (Tulloch, p. 65)
"Every villain is followed by a sophist with a sponge." (Acton, p. 88)
"by the end he knew too much to write" (p. 106)
The book is divided into five chapters:
1) The Reputation
2) The Catholic
3) The Liberal Catholic
4) The Liberal
5) The Historian
Aside from the first chapter, which attempts to situate Acton as an important historical figure, the remaining chapters move roughly through a chronological development in Acton's thought and personality.
Much of the book verges on hagiography and it is difficult to separate Acton's positions from those of Tulloch. Though Tulloch does a decent job situating Acton, particularly in the theological discussions of the 19th century (regarding Manning and Newman, along with the first Vatican Council) he also makes Acton into his own version of an historian, abandoning apologetics and Catholicism in the pursuit of truth. The case of H. C. Lea being a clear case in point, where the Black Legend was challenged by Acton's defense of the Spanish inquisition, then replaced by Lea's critique, only to have the pendulum swing again back in favour of the inquisition (or at least against the absurd excessive claims) in Kamen's revision.
Some memorable quotes (both from Tulloch and Acton) include:
"Because he distinguished between the visible and the invisible Church, the outward shell of variable opinion and the inward core of irreversable dogma, he could severely chastise authority, he never suffered the agonizing doubts of Newman or Manning who, on conversion, were less critical of their faith precisely because it constituted their ultimate refuge from too much questioning. Acton's unshakeable certitude set no limits to questioning." (Tulloch, p. 20)
"Granville complained of his stepson's rapidly expanding library, of books piling up in spare rooms and taking over bedrooms." (Tulloch, p. 23)
"No Catholic is as good as his religion. It is the only case in which there is not the slightest inducement to represent friends and enemies otherwise than as they are. Hence perfect impartiality is possible only among Catholics." (Acton, p. 29)
"'Tolerance of error is requisite for freedom,' he wrote, 'but freedom will be most complete where there is no actual diversity to be resisted, and no theoretical unity to be maintained, but where unity exists as the triumph of truth, not of force, through the victory of the Church, not through the enactment of the State.'" (Acton, 31)
"The Church is not the enemy of falsehood, but indirectly, though necessarily, the promoter of all knowledge. She not only does not fear its increase, but desires it." (Acton, p. 36)
"For if Newman was liberal by temperment his liberality rested on a theoretical authoritarianism. Acton, in contrast, was dogmatic in character and a doctrinaire liberal, and this was the source of all the difficulties surrounding their long relationship." (Tulloch, p. 41-42)
"In was not just the Council's concentration of spiritual powers in Papal hands, its destruction of freedoms within the Church, its wholesate rejection of reform, nor even its explicit rejection of a genuine ecumenicalism which concerned Acton. Even more threatening was its denial of history..." (Tulloch, p. 55)
"His intellectual ingenuity was no substitute for an instictive lack of a political nous. Too clever by half, he frequently miscalculated by endowing his opponents with a greater complexity than they possessed and consequently lost by playing a game quite different from their own." (Tulloch, p. 65)
"Every villain is followed by a sophist with a sponge." (Acton, p. 88)
"by the end he knew too much to write" (p. 106)
Displaying 1 of 1 review