Lord Acton

by Roland Hill

This is the first full-length biography of this remarkable man, making full use of archival and published materials about him. Placing Acton in the context of Catholic politics in Britain (which made him something of an outsider), it offers a wonderful life-and-times picture. Acton was born at Naples in 1834 and died at Tegernsee in Germany in 1902. Roland Hill's book covers Acton's upbringing and education in Italy, France, England, and Germany, his activities as Member of Parliament, his work as editor and owner of Liberal Catholic journals, his opposition to the doctrine of papal infallibility at the Vatican Council of 1869 to 1870, and his lifelong preoccupation with the history of freedom. Through his friendship with Prime Minister Gladstone, Acton was appointed Regius Professor of Modern History at Cambridge, where he transformed historical study and planned the Cambridge Modern History series. The enigmatic Acton was of course held in the highest esteem for his great learning and ideas on politics, religion, and the development of institutions and views fostering human freedom. Knocking Acton as a pompous Victorian has been a pastime of a new generation of young British historians. This approach is to try and understand the enigmatic personality in its personal, emotional, and intellectual pre-occupations and to get thus at the man and his ideas.

Genres: History, Biography Memoir

576 pages, Hardcover

First published April 1, 2000

Reviews

[Eduardo Garcia-Gaspar · Rating 3 out of 5]

La vida del autor de la idea de que si el poder corrompe, el poder absoluto corrompe absolutamente; la de que no solo es importante defender a la libertad de sus enemigos, sino más aún de sus amigos; la de que la real prueba de la libertad es la seguridad de las minorías; y sobre todo, la de que la libertad es la seguridad de que toda persona gozará de protección mientras haga lo que considera su deber aún en contra de las mayorías, de las costumbres, de la auoridad y de las costumbres.
Lord Acton (1834-1902) era un pensador, escritor, político, filósofo, académico, de extrema cultura, con claras ideas en asuntos de religión y política. Un gran defensor de la verdad, de la religión —entre las que no encuentra oposición alguna— y de la libertad.
El libro narra la vida de este hombre, un héroe intelectual, muchas veces aislado y atacado por sus creencias, incluso entre sus mismos correligionarios. El autor, Roland Hill, usó para esta obra la colección de materiales privados del archivo Acton para lograr un retrato familiar y personal que al mismo tiempo narra la situación política y religiosa de esos tiempos.
El libro es interesante para quienes tienen preocupaciones de ese tipo, para quienes comprenden los riesgos del nacionalismo y el socialismo; y para quienes tienen el refinamiento de comprender que cuando la religión reduce su influencia en la sociedad, el poder desnudo surge sin limitaciones; para quienes gustan de leer historia. Una obra recomendable para ellos.
¡Ah, y si usted busca algún libro de Lord Acton, no lo encontrará! Nunca escribió libro alguno. Debe satisfacernos solamente la colección de columnas, artículos, notas, cartas, críticas que se han recopilado.

[Marc · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fine bio of Lord Acton, covering his life from his youth and education, through his editorship of various scholarly journals and newspapers, his involvement in Vatican I and opposition to the dogma of papal infallibility, through his professorship at Cambridge in his later years.

[Jackson Cyril · Rating 4 out of 5]

Acton is a thinker worth working through, but I fear that this biography might be too much for most people; a better introductory volume is Herbert Butterfield's short book (more of an essay really) on Acton.