Lewis Namier
Sir Lewis Bernstein Namier (
Life
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Namier was born Ludwik Bernstein Niemirowski in
Namier emigrated to the United Kingdom in 1907,
During the
Professional career
Following the defeat of Germany in World War One, Namier joined the British delegation at the
The Polish delegation had no knowledge of the existence of Line "A" whatsoever since the idea of handing Lwów over to the Bolsheviks was rejected by Prime Minister Władysław Grabski at the very beginning of talks. Lwów had never been under the rule of Moscow in its history.[6]
Professor
The earlier-approved compromised version of the Curzon Line which was approved at the Spa Conference in Belgium was renamed by Namier as Curzon Line "B".[8] Chicherin relayed this document to Lenin who rejected it nevertheless, assured of his victory over Poland followed by a planned annexation of its entire territory.[5]
In one of his memoranda Namier falsified the results of a national census from Eastern Galicia originating from Austria-Hungary. He single-handedly reduced the number of ethnic Poles living in the region from 2 million down to 600–700 inhabitants. Professor Anna M. Cienciala believes that Namier was not the original initiator of this misrepresentation, but merely an unscrupulous supplier of handy arguments for the anti-Polish lobby among the Entente members.[9]
After leaving government service, Namier taught at
Namier served as professor at the University of Manchester from 1931 until his retirement in 1953, having been loudly cheered by his students at the conclusion of his last lecture there on European History. Namier remained active in various Zionist groups (in particular, lobbying the British government to allow the creation of what he called a Jewish Fighting Force in the Mandate of Palestine) and from 1933 was engaged in efforts on behalf of Jewish refugees from Germany.
He was married twice and knighted in 1952 at the onset of Cold War. Also in 1952, Namier was given the honour of delivering the Romanes Lecture, on which subject Namier chose Monarchy and the Party System.
Personal life
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In 1917, Namier married a Russian refugee, Clara Sophia Edeleff-Poniatowska, although they separated in 1921. He was by this time estranged from his father so that when his father died in 1922 the family estate was left to Namier's sister. In 1940 when he feared a Nazi invasion of Britain he burned a large number of his papers and arranged to commit suicide.
In 1945, his first wife died. In 1947, he married writer Julia de Beausobre (born Iulia Michaelovna Kazarina), who authored a biography of him after his death.[2] To marry Julia, who was a convinced Christian, he converted to Anglicanism which led to an estrangement with Chaim Weizman.[10]
His sister, Teodora Niemirowska, was the mother of Anna Kurska.
Political views
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Namier is best known for his work on the
Namier used
"What Namier's minutely detailed studies revealed was the fact that politics in 1760 consisted mainly in the jockeying for position and influence by individuals within the political elite" rather than ideas such as liberty or democracy, or rivalry with foreign kings, or social effects of industrial and technological change. "Spending many years himself, off and on, in psychoanalysis, [Namier] believed that the "deep-seated drives and emotions" of the individual were what explained politics", wrote
Controversies
Namier used sources such as wills and tax records to reveal the interests of the MPs. In his time, his methods were new and quite controversial. His obsession with collecting facts such as club membership of various MPs and then attempting to correlate them with voting patterns led his critics to accuse him of "taking ideas out of history".[13] Namier has been described by the historian Lawrence Stone as a member of an 'elitist school' with a 'deeply pessimistic attitude toward human affairs'.[14]
His biographer John Cannon concludes:
- Namier's achievements were greatly praised during his lifetime and unduly disparaged subsequently. On his chosen ground, the accession of George III, he made important and probably irreversible corrections to the traditional whiggish account....Later on Namier was not so much repudiated as outflanked, by critics who pointed to the narrowness of his concerns, and his lack of interest in anything but political history. The technique of structural analysis, with which his name was inextricably linked as 'Namierism', offered, in his view, an escape from voluminous narrative....[but] its limitations are very evident. There are great swathes of history where, for lack of evidence, structural analysis can hardly be applied. Even where it can, there is no guarantee that it will, in itself, generate interesting and important questions.[15]
Diplomatic history controversies
As a former patient of
At issue was the question whether Bonnet had, as Namier charged, snubbed an offer by the Polish foreign minister Colonel Józef Beck in May 1938 to have Poland come to the aid of Czechoslovakia in the event of a German attack. Bonnet denied that such an offer had been made, which led Namier to accuse Bonnet of seeking to falsify the record.[16]
Namier concluded the debate in 1953 with words "The Polish offer, for what it was worth, was first torpedoed by Bonnet the statesmen, and next obliterated by Bonnet the historian".[17]
Namier's writings on German history have been criticised for being influenced by
Like the work of his friend Sir John Wheeler-Bennett, Namier's diplomatic histories are generally poorly regarded by modern historians because he was content to condemn appeasement without seeking to explain the reasons for it; and eager to dismiss political principles as rhetorical posturing.[20]
Works
- Cold War era
- The House of Commons, 1754–1790 (3 vols.), 1966 [1964], edited by John Brooke & Sir Lewis Namier.[21]
- Crossroads of Power: Essays on Eighteenth-Century England, 1962.[22]
- Charles Townshend, His Character and Career, Leslie Stephen Lecture, Cambridge University Press, 1959.
- Vanished Supremacies: Essays on European History, 1812–1918, 1958.[23]
- Personalities and Powers, 1955.[24]
- Basic Factors in Nineteenth-Century European History, 1953.[25]
- Monarchy and the Party System: The Romanes Lecture Delivered in the Sheldonian Theatre 15 May 1952, 1952.[26]
- In the Nazi Era, 1952.[27]
- Avenues of History, 1952.
- Europe in Decay: A Study in Disintegration, 1936–1940, 1950.[28]
- Diplomatic Prelude, 1938–1939, 1948.[29]
- Facing East: Essays on Germany, the Balkans and Russia in the Twentieth Century, 1947.[30]
- World War II period
- 1848: The Revolution of the Intellectuals, 1944.[31]
- Conflicts: Studies in Contemporary History, 1942.[32]
- In the Margin of History, 1939.[33]
- Interwar years
- Skyscrapers and other Essays, 1931.[34] Contains his essays on Austrian Galicia.
- England in the Age of the American Revolution, 1930.[35]
- The Structure of Politics at the Accession of George III, 1929, 1957.[36]
Notes
- ^ "Definition of 'Namier'". collinsdictionary.com. Retrieved 29 September 2013.
- ^ a b Colley 1989, p. x
- ^ a b Colley 1989, p. 9
- ^ Cairns 1974, p. 11
- ^ a b c Eberhardt, Piotr (2012). "The Curzon Line as the eastern boundary of Poland: the origins and the political background" (PDF). Geographia Polonica. 85, 1, pp. 5-21. Polish Academy of Sciences Institute of Spatial Organization. 8-9 / 18 in PDF – via direct download, 1.27 MB.
- ^ Bartłomiej Rusin. "Lewis Namier, the Curzon Line, and the shaping of Poland's eastern frontier after World War I". Studies into the History of Central-Eastern Europe and Russia. XLVIII. Jagellonian University. Section 1: 20 (16 / 22) in PDF. Archived from the original on 22 December 2015.
- . Retrieved 21 August 2017.
- ^ Davies 1971.
- ^ Bartłomiej Rusin. "Lewis Namier, the Curzon Line, and the shaping of Poland's eastern frontier..." Ibidem. Section 1: 13 (9-10 / 22) in PDF. Archived from the original on 22 December 2015.
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(help) - ^ Colley 1989, p. 18
- ^ Mansfield 1962, p. 28.
- ^ "Geniuses don't have to be nice". Retrieved 19 January 2023.
- ^ Malin Dahlstrom (2011), The Life and Thought of Herbert Butterfield (book review). Namier's characterisation has been wrongly attributed to Herbert Butterfield, but was actually written by A. J. P. Taylor. Reviews in History.
- ISBN 978-1136879265.
- ^ John Cannon, 'Namier, Sir Lewis Bernstein (1888–1960)', Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (2004) accessed 8 Oct 2017
- ^ a b Adamthwaite 1977, pp. 183–184
- ^ Adamthwaite 1977, p. 184
- ^ Crozier 1997, p. 226
- ^ Wrigley 2006, p. 70
- ^ Jim Smyth, Professor of History at the University of Notre Dame (2015). "Two treatises of government". History Ireland. Dublin: History Publications. The problematic relationship between political ideas and political practice. Retrieved 14 December 2022.
- ^ Lewis Bernstein Namier & John Brooke (1985), The House of Commons : 1754-1790 at Google Books.
- ^ Namier (1962), Crossroads of power: essays on eighteenth-century England at Google Books.
- ^ Namier (1958), Vanished Supremacies: Essays on European History, 1812-1918 at Google Books.
- ^ Namier (1955), Personalities and powers at Google Books.
- ^ Namier (1953), Basic factors in nineteenth-century European history at Google Books.
- ^ Namier (1952), Monarchy and the Party System at Google Books.
- ^ Namier (1952), In the Nazi Era at Google Books.
- ^ Namier (1950), Europe in decay: a study in disintegration, 1936-1940 at Google Books.
- ^ Namier (1948), Diplomatic prelude, 1938-1939 at Google Books.
- ^ Namier (1947), Facing East at Google Books.
- ^ Namier (1944), 1848: the revolution of the intellectuals at Google Books.
- ^ Namier (1942), Conflicts: Studies in Contemporary History at Google Books.
- ^ Namier (1939), In the Margin of History at Google Books.
- ^ Namier (1931), Skyscrapers, and Other Essays at Google Books.
- ^ Namier (1930), England in the age of the American Revolution at Google Books.
- ^ Prof. Peter Thomas (June 1997), Review of The Structure of Politics at the Accession of George III by Lewis Namier at History.ac.uk.
References
- Adamthwaite, Anthony (1977). France and the Coming of the Second World War. London: Frank Cass.
- Cairns, John C. (1974). "Sir Lewis Namier and the History of Europe". JSTOR 41298644.
- ISBN 978-0-297-79508-7.
- Crozier, Andrew J. (1997). The Causes of the Second World War. Oxford and Malden, MA: ISBN 978-0-631-17128-7.
- S2CID 159655350.
- S2CID 143485484.
- Sharp, Samuel L. (1953). Poland: White Eagle on a Red Field. Cambridge, MA: ISBN 9780674422636.
- Wrigley, Chris (2006). A. J. P. Taylor, Radical Historian of Europe. London: ISBN 978-1-860-64286-9.
Further reading
- Burke, Peter. "Namier, (Sir) Lewis Bernstein" page 207 from Great Historians of the Modern Age edited by Lucian Boia, Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1991.
- Hayton, D. W. "Sir Lewis Namier, Sir John Neale and the Shaping of the History of Parliament." Parliamentary History 32#1 (2013): 187-211.
- James, Clive. Cultural Amnesia: Necessary Memories from History and the Arts (2007) online excerpt
- Namier, Julia. Lewis Namier: A biography, London: Oxford University Press, 1971.
- Pares, Richard & Taylor, A. J. P.(editors) Essays Presented to Sir Lewis Namier, London: Macmillan Press, 1956.
- Price, Jacob. "Party, Purpose, and Pattern: Sir Lewis Namier and His Critics" Journal of British Studies, 1#1 (November 1961): 71–93.
- Rose, Norman. Lewis Namier & Zionism, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1980.
- Smyth, James. "Lewis Namier, Herbert Butterfield and Edmund Burke." Journal for Eighteenth-Century Studies 35#3 (2012): 381-389.
- The Ordeal of Sir Lewis Namier, Commentary Magazine
External links
- Review of The Structure of Politics at the Accession of George III
- Isaiah Berlin on Lewis Namier in his book Personal Impressions
- Lewis Namier: The eccentric historian who changed British postwar culture.
- Works by L. B. (Lewis Bernstein) Namier at Faded Page (Canada)
- Lewis Namier papers, John Rylands Library, University of Manchester