George Peabody Gooch

George Peabody Gooch OM, CH (1873-1968) was a British journalist, historian and politician. A follower of Lord Acton, he never held an academic position, but knew the work of historians of continental Europe. [Donald R. Kelley, "Frontiers of History: Historical Inquiry in the Twentieth Century" (2006), p. 101.]

Early life

He was educated at Eton College, King's College London and Trinity College, Cambridge. He was Member of Parliament for Bath for the Liberal Party, from 1906 to 1910, in a constituency where he was first a candidate in 1903. He edited "Contemporary Review", from 1911 until 1960 [ [http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2004/02/18/db1802.xml News - Telegraph ] ] .

Historian

After World War I, he was an influential historian of Europe of the period, critical of British policy. He was active in the Union of Democratic Control. [ [http://www.cercles.com/actors/morgangb.html Cercles-Actors And Witnesses ] ] .

From the mid-1920s and for a decade he was involved in the publication of the official British diplomatic history, with Harold Temperley. Both choices, Gooch and Temperley, were intended to signal that the history was independent of the Government [ [http://www.diplomacy.edu/Books/knowledge/Hamilton.htm Hamilton ] ] . Gooch's selection was against reservations of Headlam-Morley, and Temperley himself, that he was too committed to a pro-German position, and criticism of Sir Edward Grey. [Keith M. Wilson, "Forging the Collective Memory: Government and International Historians" (1996), pp. 15-6.]

He has been noted as a significant revisionist historian of Europe of the early twentieth century, and in particular of the causes of World War I. [Annika Mombauer, "The Origins of the First World War: Controversies and Consensus" (2002), p. 96.] He has been grouped with Harry Elmer Barnes and Sidney Bradshaw Fay as "early revisionists". [Bascom Barry Hayes, "Bismarck and Mitteleuropa" (1994), p. 17.]

Awards and honours

He became a Companion of Honour in 1939, and a member of the Order of Merit in 1963.

Works

*"The History of English Democratic Ideas in the Seventeenth Century" (1898)
*"A History of Our Time 1885-1911" and later editions
*"History and Historians in the Nineteenth Century" (1913)
*"The Races of Austria-Hungary" (1917) UDC pamphlet
*"Germany and the French Revolution" (1920)
*"History of Modern Europe, 1878-1919" (1923)
*"Germany" (1926)
*"Recent Revelations of European Diplomacy" (1927)
*"Origins of the War", with Harold Temperley
*"Maria Theresa and Other Studies" (1951)
*"Under Six Reigns" (1958)
*"Life of Lord Courtney"

References

*Felix E. Hirsch, "George Peabody Gooch", The Journal of Modern History, Vol. 26, No. 3 (September 1954), pp. 260-271
*A. O. Sarkissian, "Studies in Diplomatic History and Historiography in Honour of G. P. Gooch, C. H." (1963)
*W. N. Medlicott, "G. P. Gooch", Journal of Contemporary History, Vol. 4, No. 1, Colonialism and Decolonization (January 1969), pp. 201-203
*Frank Eyck (1982), "G. P. Gooch: A Study in History and Politics"

Notes