The life and the man -- The liberal internationalist -- The Whig constitutionalist -- The rural elegist -- The historian and the reputation.
Described by a contemporary as "probably the most widely read historian in the world; perhaps in the history
of the world," Trevelyan acted as a public moralist, public teacher and public benefactor, wielding unchallenged cultural authority among the governing and the educated classes of his day for over fifty years. Trevelyn's optimism and secure cultural bearings sorely tested in his own time by two world wars, speak of a lost way of life. He was a member by birth of the aristocracy of privilege and intellect. He was at home in the circles of high politics during the period from the First World War into the age of Churchill. And yet the churning social and cultural currents of the postwar years would erode the peak of influence Trevelyan had attained, creating a far different intellectual landscape. The author, whose great theme is the decline of a self-confident Britain, continues that story here with the focus on Trevelyan. -- from Book Jacket.
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