Blair Worden
Epiphany on Trumpington Street
The Life and Thought of Herbert Butterfield: History, Science and God
By Michael Bentley
Cambridge University Press 381pp £50 order from our bookshop
Herbert Butterfield (1900–79) was once a name to conjure with, inside and outside the academic world. Regius Professor of History at Cambridge, and Master of Peterhouse, the college where he spent his working life, he wrote famous books which reached wide audiences: The Whig Interpretation of History (1931), The Englishman and His History (1944), Christianity and History (1949), and The Origins of Modern Science (also 1949). He took on an extraordinary range of subjects, from English history to world history, from the Renaissance to modern times, from international diplomacy to religion, and from political thought to the history of historical writing. He made his mark on all of them, though his books have more spread than depth. He disliked archival work, being more interested in interpreting the past than in discovering it. He contrived both to write too much too quickly and to leave major projects to which he had pledged himself unfulfilled.
In old age he lost his readership and his esteem. Attempts to revive his reputation since his death have hitherto drawn only specialist attention. Now Michael Bentley’s fine study, sympathetic but no whit idolatrous, seeks to place him on a wider map. Scrupulous and enterprising in the excavation
Sign Up to our newsletter
Receive free articles, highlights from the archive, news, details of prizes, and much more.@Lit_Review
Follow Literary Review on Twitter
'It is the ... sketches of the local and the overlooked that lend this book its density and drive, and emphasise Britain’s mostly low-key riches – if only you can be bothered to buy an anorak and seek.'
Jonathan Meades on the beauty of brutalism.
https://literaryreview.co.uk/castles-of-concrete
'Cruickshank’s history reveals an extraordinary eclecticism of architectural styles and buildings, from Dutch Revivalism to Arts and Crafts experimentation, from Georgian terraces to Victorian mansion blocks.'
William Boyd on the architecture of Chelsea.
https://literaryreview.co.uk/where-george-eliot-meets-mick-jagger
'The eight years he has spent in solitary confinement have had a devastating impact on his mental health ... human rights organisations believe his detention is punishment for his critical views.'
@lucyjpop on the Egyptian activist and poet Ahmed Douma.
https://literaryreview.co.uk/ahmed-douma