From Publishers Weekly
Few autobiographies of academics include a chapter on the subject's freelance income, but then Taylor (1906-1990) was no ordinary historian. Burk (Britain, America, and the Sinews of War 1914-1918) shows that, in addition to his prolific writing career (The Origins of the Second World War is the most famous of his dozens of books), the renowned British historian was a talking head long before CNN hit the airwaves. Taylor's former student and a history professor at University College, London, Burk examines her subject's rather ordinary childhood and his rise up Britain's academic ladder. Taylor was a professor at Oxford when WWII launched his extra-academic career. As he made his name writing for British newspapers and appearing on the BBC, this specialist in European diplomatic history also made enemies. His unpopularity among his fellow academics was partially due to his outspoken leftist views and sometime activism in the 1950s, for instance, he was a leader in Britain's nuclear disarmament campaign. But it was also due to what the author, generally sympathetic to her subject, deems a difficult personality: "He was conceited and self-righteous, self-absorbed and self-contained, insensitive and thoughtless." Unfortunately, Burk only concedes Taylor's faults in the final chapter; until then, the reader is left wondering if jealousy and politics alone made him so controversial. Nor does Burk undertake a serious psychological examination of Taylor or an evaluation of his pioneering role as a television academic, either of which would have widened her readership. Nonetheless, this worthy book, with its balanced emphases on the professional and the personal, will please historians of every stripe. 16 pages of b&w photos. Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.


Stefan Collini, The Observer
"Admirably combines the engaging readability of the sympathetic biographer with the tough-minded analysis of the professional historian."


Ben Pimlott, Financial Times
"A fascinating, balanced and carefully researched appraisal."


Martin Walker, Wilson Quarterly
"Burk . . . has mastered the vicious subtleties of the British class system and [produced] a [fair and well judged] biography."


Martin Walker, Wilson Quarterly
"[Burk] has mastered the vicious subtleties of the British class system…to produce a biography that is fair and well judged."


Book Description
Popular, prolific, and impassioned, British historian A. J. P. Taylor (1906-1990) was also outspoken, controversial, and quarrelsome. Taylor's many books, including The Struggle for Mastery in Europe, The Origins of the Second World War, and English History 1914-1945, changed the way history was written and read. His legendary television lectures, delivered live and unscripted, brought history to a huge popular audience. In this masterful biography, Kathleen Burk provides a perceptive account of the life and achievements of Britain's most famous twentieth-century historian. Burk draws on her personal acquaintance with Taylor in his later years and on an array of previously untapped archival materials to analyze the successes, failures, and controversies of Taylor's life as historian, Oxford don, broadcast journalist, husband, and friend. The author sets Taylor's professional work in the context of the development of history in England during the century, and she traces the relations between his writings and his reactions to domestic and foreign politics. Her account of Taylor's years at Oxford explores the customs and rituals of the academic community, his colleagues, and the successive crises that beset him personally and professionally. The book also assesses Taylor's political activities and his self-described role as an "impotent socialist," his development as a journalist and broadcaster, previously unknown financial aspects of his freelance activities, and his private upheavals, in particular his failed marriages.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

Popular, prolific, and impassioned, British historian A. J. P. Taylor (1906-1990) was also outspoken, controversial, and quarrelsome. Taylor's many books, including The Struggle for Mastery in Europe, The Origins of the Second World War, and English History 1914-1945, changed the way history was written and read. His legendary television lectures, delivered live and unscripted, brought history to a huge popular audience. In this masterful biography, Kathleen Burk provides a perceptive account of the life and achievements of Britain's most famous twentieth-century historian. Burk draws on her personal acquaintance with Taylor in his later years and on an array of previously untapped archival materials to analyze the successes, failures, and controversies of Taylor's life as historian, Oxford don, broadcast journalist, husband, and friend.

The author sets Taylor's professional work in the context of the development of history in England during the century, and she traces the relations between his writings and his reactions to domestic and foreign politics. Her account of Taylor's years at Oxford explores the customs and rituals of the academic community, his colleagues, and the successive crises that beset him personally and professionally. The book also assesses Taylor's political activities and his self-described role as an "impotent socialist," his development as a journalist and broadcaster, previously unknown financial aspects of his freelance activities, and his private upheavals, in particular his failed marriages.

FROM THE CRITICS

Raymond Carr - Literary Review

This book is a remarkable portrait of a remarkable man... . No future historian can hope to explain [Taylor's] impact on his times better than Kathleen Burk has done.

Stefan Collini - The Observer

Admirably combines the engaging readability of the sympathetic biographer with the tough-minded analysis of the professional historian.

Chris Wrigley - History Today

This is a big book (in both senses of the term) and deserves a wide readership.

Ben Pimlott - Financial Times

A fascinating, balanced and carefully researched appraisal.

Raymond Carr - Literary Review

This book is a remarkable portrait of a remarkable man. . . . No future historian can hope to explain [Taylor￯﾿ﾽs] impact on his times better than Kathleen Burk has done.Read all 9 "From The Critics" >

WHAT PEOPLE ARE SAYING

Burk . . . has mastered the vicious subtleties of the British class system and [produced] a [fair and well judged] biography.--(Martin Walker, Wilson Quarterly)  — Martin Walker

ACCREDITATION