History and biography : essays in honour of Derek Beales

For too long, too many historians have been too much concerned with impersonal forces, underlying structures and long-term developments. Now, 'people' are back. In a post-modern age it is easier to appreciate the decisive role played by individuals, as they ride their luck and seize their opportunity to bend the world to their will. As these essays by twelve eminent historians demonstrate, biography is too important to be left to the amateurs. Among the rich variety of strong characters analysed here are an Austrian emperor, a German kaiser, a Victorian prime minister, an Italian dictator, and an American president. Dedicated to a master-biographer, Derek Beales, the range and quality of this collection will stimulate, inform and entertain everyone interested in the history of the modern world.

For too long, too many historians have been too much concerned with impersonal forces, underlying structures and long-term developments. Now, "people" are back. In a postmodern age it is easier to appreciate the decisive role played by individuals, as they ride their luck and seize their opportunity to bend the world to their will. As these essays by twelve eminent historians demonstrate, biography is too important to be left to the amateurs. Among the rich variety of strong characters analyzed here are an Austrian emperor, a German kaiser, a Victorian prime minister, an Italian dictator, and an American president.

For too long, too many historians have been too much concerned with impersonal forces, underlying structures and long term developments. Now, 'people' are back. In a post modern age it is easier to appreciate the decisive role played by individuals, as they ride their luck and seize their opportunity to bend the world to their will. As these essays by twelve eminent historians demonstrate, biography is too important to be left to the amateurs. Among the rich variety of strong characters analysed here are an Austrian emperor, a German kaiser, a Victorian prime minister, an Italian dictator, and an American president. IN November 1753, at the request of the Empress Maria Theresia, the aged Baron Johann Christian Bartenstein (he was then 63) wrote two memorials on the working of Count Friedrich Wilhelm Haugwitz's new System ('neue Sistemate') of finance and government, introduced in 1748-9.

this Is A Collection Of Biographical Essays By Twelve Eminent Historians.