Butterfield, Sir Herbert (1900–1979)
© The Master and Fellows of Peterhouse, Cambridge
A political historian and philosopher of history, Butterfield's fame rests on his denunciation of the teleological aspects of the 'Whig' approach to history, along with a later attack on Namier's method of structural analysis.
- Forenames:
- Herbert
- Surname:
- Butterfield
- Title:
- Sir
- Dates:
- 1900–1979
- Institutions:
- Historical Association
University of Cambridge (Peterhouse) - Significant posts:
- President, Historical Association
Regius Professor of Modern History, University of Cambridge (Peterhouse) - Influences:
- Acton, John Emerich Edward Dalberg
Gooch, George Peabody
Temperley, Harold - Contemporaries:
- Namier, Lewis Bernstein
- Influenced:
- Cowling, Maurice
- Themes:
- International history
Philosophy of history
Political history
Whig history
- Biographies:
- Blackwell Dictionary of Historians
Encyclopedia of Historians and Historical Writing
Oxford Dictionary of National Biography
Proceedings of the British Academy - Obituaries:
- Times
Bibliography
Personal papers
Significant publications
- Herbert Butterfield, The Whig Interpretation of History (1931)
- Herbert Butterfield, George III and the Historians (London, 1957)
Other reading
- Jeremy Black and Karl Schweizer, 'The value of diplomatic history: a case study in the historical thought of Herbert Butterfield', Diplomacy and Statecraft, 17 (2006), 617–31
