Lewis Namier (1888–1960)

Born in Poland, Lewis Namier was educated in England at the London School of Economics and Oxford University. In 1931 he accepted a professorship at Manchester University, where he remained for more than 20 years. An active Zionist, he served for several years as political secretary of the Jewish show more Agency for Palestine. Knighted in 1952, as a historian Namier specialized in studies of eighteenth-century English political and diplomatic history, setting the pattern for later studies in that and other eras. For his major work, Structure of Politics at the Accession of George III (1929), he prepared detailed biographical studies of individual members of several Parliaments as a method of studying mid-eighteenth-century England. He concluded that the underlying motives behind political action were especially familial and oligarchic connections and the quest for position and place, rather than great events and issues. His method came to be called Namierism in his honor. Although criticized by some scholars, it led other historians and scholars to reevaluate much of English history. (Bowker Author Biography) show less