Sir Herbert Butterfield (7 October 1900 – 20 July 1979) was a British historian and
philosopher of historyPhilosophy of history is an area of philosophy concerning the eventual significance, if any, of human history. Furthermore, it speculates as to a possible teleological end to its development—that is, it asks if there is a design, purpose, directive principle, or finality in the processes of human...
who is remembered chiefly for two books -- a short volume early in his career entitled
The Whig Interpretation of History (1931) and his
Origins of Modern Science (1949).
Biography
Butterfield was born in
OxenhopeOxenhope is a village and civil parish with a population of 2,476 in the metropolitan borough of Bradford, West Yorkshire, England, near Keighley...
in
YorkshireYorkshire is a historic county of northern England and the largest in the British Isles. Because of its great size, functions were increasingly undertaken over time by its subdivisions, which have been subject to periodic reform. Throughout these changes, Yorkshire has continued to be recognised as...
, and received his education at the Trade and Grammar School in
KeighleyKeighley is a town and civil parish within the metropolitan borough of the City of Bradford in West Yorkshire, England. It is situated northwest of Bradford and is at the confluence of the River Aire and the River Worth...
. He was awarded an MA by
Cambridge UniversityThe University of Cambridge , located in the City of Cambridge, Cambridgeshire, United Kingdom, is the second oldest university in the English-speaking world and the fourth oldest in Europe...
in 1926. Butterfield was a fellow of the
Institute for Advanced StudyThe Institute for Advanced Study, located in Princeton, New Jersey, United States, is a center for theoretical research and intellectual inquiry. The Institute is perhaps best known as the academic home of Albert Einstein, John von Neumann, and Kurt Gödel, after their immigration to the United...
in
Princeton, New JerseyPrinceton, New Jersey is located in Mercer County, New Jersey, United States. Princeton University has been sited in the town since 1756. Although Princeton is a "college town", there are other important institutions in the area, including the Institute for Advanced Study, Educational Testing...
in the 1950s and at Cambridge from 1928 to 1979. He was Master of Peterhouse (1955-1968),
Vice-ChancellorA vice-chancellor of a university in England, Wales, Northern Ireland, New Zealand, Australia, India, Sri Lanka other Commonwealth countries, and some universities in Hong Kong, is the chief executive of the University...
of the University (1959-1961), and
Regius Professor of Modern HistoryRegius Professor of Modern History is one of the senior professorships in history at Cambridge University. It was founded in 1724 by George I.- Regius Professors of History :*Samuel Harris 1724*Shallet Turner 1735*Lawrence Brockett 1762*Thomas Gray 1768...
(1963—1968). Butterfield served as editor of the Cambridge Historical Journal from 1938 to 1952. He was knighted in 1968. He married Edith Joyce Crawshaw in 1929, and had three children.
Work
Butterfield's main interests were
historiographyHistoriography is the history of history, the aspect of history and of semiotics that considers how knowledge of the past, either recent or distant, is obtained and transmitted...
, the
history of scienceScience is a body of empirical, theoretical, and practical knowledge about the natural world, produced by a global community of researchers making use of scientific methods, which emphasize the observation, explanation, and adequate prediction of real world phenomena by experiment...
, eighteenth-century constitutional history, Christianity and history, and the theory of international politics. As a Protestant, Butterfield was highly concerned with religious issues, but he did not believe that historians could uncover the hand of God in history.
The Whig Interpretation of History
He had in mind especially the historians of his own country, but his criticism of the retroactive creation of a line of progression toward the glorious present can be, and has subsequently been, applied more generally. A given "whig interpretation of history" is now a general label applied to various historical interpretations.
He found Whiggish history objectionable because it warps the past to see it in terms of the issues of the present, to squeeze the contending forces of, say, the mid-seventeenth century into those which remind us of ourselves most and least, or the imagine them as struggling to produce our wonderful selves. They were of course struggling, but not for that.
Butterfield wrote that Whiggishness is too handy a 'rule of thumb ... by which the historian can select and reject, and can make his points of emphasis'.
Interestingly, after 'The Whig Interpretation of History' he continued to write history with a whiggish style. He stated that in fact it was too hard not to portray any historiography Whiggishly.
Quote
"The greatest menace to our civilization is the conflict between giant organized systems of self-righteousness - each only too delighted to find that the other is wicked - each only too glad that the sins of the other give it pretext for still deeper hatred."
Works on Herbert Butterfield
- McIntire, C. T., Herbert Butterfield: Historian as Dissenter, Yale University Press, 2004
- Sewell, Keith C., Herbert Butterfield and the Interpretation of History, Palgrave Macmillan 2005
External links