Historical Figures Codexery

A. J. P. Taylor

English historian and broadcaster, known for his television lectures and expertise in European diplomacy.

Born on 25 March 1906, Alan John Percivale Taylor was an English historian whose expertise lay in European diplomacy of the 19th and 20th centuries.[1] Through his television lectures and roles as a journalist and broadcaster, Taylor gained fame among millions.[1] Richard Overy, a historian, called Taylor "the Macaulay of our age".[1]

Quick Facts

Birth name
Alan John Percivale Taylor
Born
25 March 1906
Birthplace
Southport, Lancashire, England
Died
7 September 1990
Place of death
London, England
Education
Oriel College, Oxford
Occupation
Historian
Years active
1927–1990

Facts from the source article.

Life and work

Taylor was born in Birkdale, Southport, the only child of a cotton merchant and a schoolmistress, and his wealthy parents held left-wing views which he inherited.[2] Both his parents were pacifists who sent him to Quaker schools including Bootham School in York.[3] During the Second World War he served in the Home Guard and befriended émigré statesmen from Central Europe.[4] Taylor married three times, first to Margaret Adams in 1931, then to Eve Crosland in 1951, and finally to the Hungarian historian Éva Haraszti.[5]

After earning a first-class honours degree from Oxford in 1927, Taylor went to Vienna for postgraduate study.[6] From 1930 until 1938, Taylor held the position of history lecturer at the Victoria University of Manchester.[7] The Origins of the Second World War, Taylor's most contentious book, came out in 1961 and gave him a revisionist reputation.[8]

What the cited sources add

The University of Manchester history website notes that Taylor was a lecturer there from 1930 to 1938 and that he viewed Manchester as a stepping-stone to returning to Oxford.[9] The same source states that Taylor built a solid academic reputation at Manchester, publishing work on nineteenth-century European diplomatic history.[9] The website also records that Taylor's relationship with A.P. Wadsworth of The Manchester Guardian was more important to his development than his relationship with fellow historian Sir Lewis Namier.[9] His first column for the Sunday Express was "Why Must We Soft-Soap The Germans?", in which he complained most Germans were still Nazis at heart.[10]

In his debut piece for the Sunday Pictorial, Taylor criticized the United Nations' position in the Korean War, claiming the UN simply served as a cover for American interests.[11]

References

  1. Wikipedia, "A. J. P. Taylor" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Overy, Richard, "Riddle Radical Ridicule", The Observer, 30 January 1994; "Top Historians: The Results", 2011-11-16 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  2. Wikipedia, "A. J. P. Taylor" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Thompson, "Taylor, Alan John Percivale", 2008; Taylor, "A personal history", Hamilton, 1983 (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
  3. Wikipedia, "A. J. P. Taylor" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Taylor, "A personal history", Hamilton, 1983; Wrigley 2006; Staff, "Bootham School Register", Bootham Old Scholars Association (BOSA), 2011; Thompson, "Taylor, Alan John Percivale", 2008; Burk 2002, p.41 (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
  4. Wikipedia, "A. J. P. Taylor" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Burk, "Troublemaker The Life and History of A.J.P. Taylor", Yale University Press, 2000, p. 236 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  5. Wikipedia, "A. J. P. Taylor" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Taylor, A. J. P. (1983) A Personal History. London: Hamish Hamilton. p.267 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  6. Wikipedia, "A. J. P. Taylor" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Burk 2002, p.41 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  7. Wikipedia, "A. J. P. Taylor" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "Our History" University of Manchester website; Burk 2002 (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
  8. Wikipedia, "A. J. P. Taylor" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Martel 1999, p.1 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  9. "Our History" University of Manchester website. facts only, no text reused. alc.manchester.ac.uk
  10. Wikipedia, "A. J. P. Taylor" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Taylor, A. J. P., "Why Must We Soft-Soap The Germans?", Sunday Express, 27 October 1957 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  11. Wikipedia, "A. J. P. Taylor" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Taylor, A. J. P., "UNO Has Failed!", Sunday Pictorial, 28 January 1951 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org

Each numbered sentence above was checked against the source it cites before publication. Sentences citing Wikipedia adapt text from the English Wikipedia article A. J. P. Taylor (contributors), used under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is available under the same licence. Other sources were used for facts only; no text or images are copied from them.

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