Macaulay

by Arthur Bryant

biography of the British Macaulay

Genres: Biography

145 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1979

About the author

Sir Arthur Wynne Morgan Bryant was an English historian, columnist for The Illustrated London News and man of affairs. His books included studies of Samuel Pepys, accounts of English eighteenth- and nineteenth-century history, and a life of George V.

Bryant's historiography was often based on an English romantic exceptionalism drawn from his nostalgia for an idealised agrarian past. He hated modern commercial and financial capitalism, he emphasised duty over rights, and he equated democracy with the consent of "fools" and "knaves"

Reviews

[Nathanael · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a great way to see life in pre-Victorian England. Here's a man born into a family that was quickly falling out of the middle class. He came of age and became his family's provider, but during a brilliant career became a royal peer.

Want to see 19 century upward mobility in Britain? Read this. Incredible.

[Jeremy · Rating 5 out of 5]

First read this in 2016 and really enjoyed it. Having recently finished Clive's book on Macaulay I have reread this and am blown away at how readable and well written this short biography is. It also explains, better than I have seen elsewhere, why Macaulay's history is at once so good yet is now superceded. Highly recommended

[Miles Smith · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very good short biography of the great Victorian historian and parliamentarian.