G.M. Trevelyan

George Macaulay Trevelyan (February 16, 1876 ? July 21, 1962), was an English historian, son of Sir George Otto Trevelyan and great-nephew of Thomas Macaulay, whose staunch liberal Whig principles he espoused in accessible works of literate narrative avoiding a consciously dispassionate analysis, that became old-fashioned during his long and productive career.

Related Topics:
February 16 - 1876 - July 21 - 1962 - English - Historian - George Otto Trevelyan - Thomas Macaulay - Whig

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

After attending Harrow School, where he specialized in history, Trevelyan studied at Trinity College, Cambridge, where he was one of the "Cambridge Apostles". In 1898 he won a fellowship at Trinity with a dissertation which was published the following year as England in the Age of Wycliffe. Trevelyan lectured at Cambridge until 1903 at which point he left academic life. In 1927 he returned to the University to take up a position as Regius Professor of Modern History, where the single student whose doctorate he agreed to supervise was J.H. Plumb (1936). In 1940 he was appointed as Master of Trinity College and served in the post until 1951 when he retired.

Related Topics:
Harrow School - Trinity College, Cambridge - Cambridge Apostles - 1898 - 1903 - 1927 - Regius Professor of Modern History - J.H. Plumb - 1940 - 1951

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Trevelyan declined the Presidency of the British Academy but served as Chancellor of Durham University from 1950 to 1958. Trevelyan College at Durham University is named after him. He was also elected a Fellow of the British Academy in 1925, a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1950, and was an honorary doctor of many universities including Cambridge. He worked tirelessly through his career on behalf of the National Trust, in preserving not merely historic houses, but historic landscapes.

Related Topics:
British Academy - Durham University - 1950 - 1958 - Trevelyan College - 1925 - Royal Society - National Trust

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Trevelyan's history is engaged and partisan. Of his Garibaldi trilogy, "reeking with bias", he remarked in his essay "Bias in History", "Without bias, I should never have written them at all. For I was moved to write them by a poetical sympathy with the passions of the Italian patriots of the period, which I retrospectively shared."

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~