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Party, Purpose, and Pattern: Sir Lewis Namier and His Critics

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  17 January 2017

Jacob M. Price
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Extract

The recent death of Professor Sir Lewis Namier (19 August 1960) provides an occasion to assess, albeit most tentatively, if not the man (I did not know him well), then at least his contribution to the writing of English history. The need for such an assessment is a little ironic, for Sir Lewis, for all his renown, has left a somewhat indistinct after-image among historians in this country. Ever since the appearance in 1929 of his great work on the Structure of Politics at the Accession of George III, his name has been a fixture in bibliographies and in the knowingness of knowing graduate student and cannier undergraduate. Yet few in this country have read his work through – that is, his monumental works on eighteenth century politics on which most of the estime of his succès d'estime has been built. Many more are familiar with the lectures, reviews and critical works on modern German and diplomatic history to which he devoted much of his productive effort between 1933 and 1953. Though these last are works of some importance, the ultimate reputation of Namier as a scholar must rest on his eighteenth century work — in fact upon his publications of 1929 and 1930. It is this work and some of the methodological questions it raises which are under discussion here.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of British Studies , Volume 1 , Issue 1 , November 1961 , pp. 71 - 93
Copyright
Copyright © North American Conference of British Studies 1961

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References

1. This paper is concerned primarily with the methodological aspects of Sir Lewis Namier's work. For a discussion of some specific problems in interpreting English eighteenth century history, see Fryer, W. R., “The study of British politics between the Revolution and the Reform Act”, Renaissance and Modern Studies, I (1957) 91–114 CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

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10. This was by no means original with Namier.

11. Butterfield, Herbert, George III and the historians, 1st ed. (London, 1957), 10 Google Scholar; 2nd ed. (New York, 1959), 10.

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40. Cf. above, pp. 2-3.

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48. Ibid.

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