Whig Interpretation of History (Paperback)

by Herbert Butterfield (Author) "IT has been said that the historian is the avenger, and that standing as a judge between the parties and rivalries and causes of bygone..." (more)
Key Phrases: whig historian, abridged history, whig interpretation, Martin Luther, The Underlying, Lord Acton (more...)

Product Details

• Paperback: 132 pages
• Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company (September 1965)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0393003183
• ISBN-13: 978-0393003185
• Product Dimensions: 7.6 x 5 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #69,610 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great Reading for History Grad Students, April 1, 2007

By	Reader (Arlington, Virginia) - See all my reviews

"The Whig Interpretation of History" is superb meditation on the craft of history and how it can be distorted by "whig history." This was how Herbert Butterfield described historians who project modern attitudes on to the past, pass moral judgments on historical figures, and regard history as significant only to the extent that it labored to create the modern world. Butterfield regarded "whig history" as the antithesis of real history, which glories in the sheer "differentness" of the past and attempts to understand past events and people in the context of their own time, not of ours. Butterfield's writing was eloquent, his thought profound, and his temperament humane. His book, although old, is a genuine classic, to be treasured by all historians and readers of history. Highly recommended.

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An enjoyable explosion of Whig pretension, May 30, 2001

By	Kevin Jones "Gentleman of Leisure" (Denver, CO, USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

On reading histories of the nineteenth century, one cannot help but note that the historians believed that all the clashes of history inevitably led to the apotheosis of virtue in the person of the Whig gentleman. Sir Butterfield adeptly demolishes such a naive, though entrenched, approach to historical documentation, noting that the chaos of history, whether provoked by the Reformation or by English politics, in no way consciously intended many of its results. Religious liberty, for instance, was not a conscious aim of the Protestant Reformation, but a byproduct of the brutal wars over religion which scarred Europe for a century. It is only in the deforming glasses of Whig interpreters that the Protestant Reformers appear as advocating everything whiggish.

Butterfield does have a few of his own biases, speaking in the magisterial "we" when declaring our age a secularized one, or speaking of alleged Catholic irrationality. But these are minor faults, and easily accounted for, hardly marring lthis excellent essay.

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars good cautionary work, September 6, 2001

By	Robert Burnham (Hales Corners, Wisconsin USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

At the time this book was originally published (1931) I suspect it had a lot of direct relevance for practicing historians. Today, it reads somewhat old fashioned. However, it's well written, if a bit formal, and certainly needs to be read by anyone who wants to keep his or her thinking about history on track. But see also the mention this book gets in Fischer's Historians' Fallacies. Even Sir Herbert doesn't escape that work unscathed.