George Peabody Gooch OM

Order of Merit

The Order of Merit is a British dynastic order recognising distinguished service in the armed forces, science, art, literature, or for the promotion of culture...

, CH (21 October 1873 – 31 August 1968) was a British journalist, historian and Liberal Party

Liberal Party (UK)

The Liberal Party was one of the two major political parties of the United Kingdom during the 19th and early 20th centuries. It was a third party of negligible importance throughout the latter half of the 20th Century, before merging with the Social Democratic Party in 1988 to form the present day...

 politician. A follower of Lord Acton, he never held an academic position, but knew the work of historians of continental Europe.

Early life

Gooch was born in London, and educated at Eton College

Eton College

Eton College, often referred to simply as Eton, is a British independent school for boys aged 13 to 18. It was founded in 1440 by King Henry VI as "The King's College of Our Lady of Eton besides Wyndsor"....

, King's College London

King's College London

King's College London is a public research university located in London, United Kingdom and a constituent college of the federal University of London. King's has a claim to being the third oldest university in England, having been founded by King George IV and the Duke of Wellington in 1829, and...

 and Trinity College, Cambridge

Trinity College, Cambridge

Trinity College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Trinity has more members than any other college in Cambridge or Oxford, with around 700 undergraduates, 430 graduates, and over 170 Fellows...

.
He was elected at the 1906 general election

United Kingdom general election, 1906

-Seats summary:-See also:*MPs elected in the United Kingdom general election, 1906*The Parliamentary Franchise in the United Kingdom 1885-1918-External links:***-References:*F. W. S. Craig, British Electoral Facts: 1832-1987**...

 as Member of Parliament

Member of Parliament

A Member of Parliament is a representative of the voters to a :parliament. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, the term applies specifically to members of the lower house, as upper houses often have a different title, such as senate, and thus also have different titles for its members,...

 (MP) for Bath

Bath (UK Parliament constituency)

Bath is a constituency in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, previously of the House of Commons of England. It is an ancient constituency which has been constantly represented in Parliament since boroughs were first summoned to send members in the 13th century...

, but lost the seat at the January 1910 general election. He stood again in Bath at the December 1910 general election, but did not regain the seat, and was unsuccessful again when he stood at a by-election

By-election

A by-election is an election held to fill a political office that has become vacant between regularly scheduled elections....

 in Reading

Reading (UK Parliament constituency)

Reading was a parliamentary borough, and later a borough constituency, represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It comprised the town of Reading in the county of Berkshire....

 in November 1913.

He edited Contemporary Review

Contemporary Review

-Foundation:It was founded in 1866 by Alexander Strahan and a group of intellectuals anxious to promote intelligent and independent opinion about the great issues of their day. They intended it to be the church-minded counterpart of the resolutely secular Fortnightly Review, which was founded by...

, from 1911 until 1960.

Historian

After World War I

World War I

World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...

, he was an influential historian of Europe of the period, critical of British policy. He was active in the Union of Democratic Control

Union of Democratic Control

The Union of Democratic Control was a British pressure group formed in 1914 to press for a more responsive foreign policy. While not a pacifist organization, it was opposed to military influence in government.-World War I:...

.

From the mid-1920s and for a decade he was involved in the publication of the official British diplomatic history, with Harold Temperley

Harold Temperley

Harold William Vazeille Temperley was a British historian, Professor of Modern History at the University of Cambridge from 1931, and Master of Peterhouse, Cambridge.- Overview :...

. Both choices, Gooch and Temperley, were intended to signal that the history was independent of the Government. Gooch's selection was against reservations of Headlam-Morley, and Temperley himself, that he was too committed to a pro-German position, and criticism of Sir Edward Grey.

He has been noted as a significant revisionist

Historical revisionism

In historiography, historical revisionism is the reinterpretation of orthodox views on evidence, motivations, and decision-making processes surrounding a historical event...

 historian of Europe of the early twentieth century, and in particular of the causes of World War I. He has been grouped with Harry Elmer Barnes

Harry Elmer Barnes

Harry Elmer Barnes was a prominent American historian in the 20th century. A "progressive who had some classical liberal impulses," he was associated for virtually his entire career with Columbia University.-Early career:...

 and Sidney Bradshaw Fay

Sidney Bradshaw Fay

Sidney Bradshaw Fay was an American historian, revisionist historian, whose reexamination of the causes of World War I, The Origins of the World War remains a classic study. Fay left Harvard University to study at the Sorbonne and the University of Berlin...

 as "early revisionists".

Awards and honours

He became a Companion of Honour in 1939, and a member of the Order of Merit

Order of Merit

The Order of Merit is a British dynastic order recognising distinguished service in the armed forces, science, art, literature, or for the promotion of culture...

 in 1963. He died in London in 1968.

Works

• The History of English Democratic Ideas in the Seventeenth Century (1898)
• A History of Our Time 1885-1911 and later editions
• History and Historians in the Nineteenth Century (1913)
• The Races of Austria-Hungary (1917) UDC pamphlet
• Germany and the French Revolution (1920)
• History of Modern Europe, 1878-1919 (1923)
• Germany (1926)
• Recent Revelations of European Diplomacy (1927)
• Origins of the War, with Harold Temperley
  Harold Temperley
  Harold William Vazeille Temperley was a British historian, Professor of Modern History at the University of Cambridge from 1931, and Master of Peterhouse, Cambridge.- Overview :...
  
  
• Maria Theresa and Other Studies (1951)
• Under Six Reigns (1958)
• Catherine the Great, and other studies (1966)
• Life of Lord Courtney

External links