Herbert Butterfield Quotes

Herbert Butterfield was born in Oxenhope, Yorkshire, England. He was an English historian. He was Regius Professor of Modern History at Peterhouse College, Cambridge University from 1963-68, and Vice-Chancellor of the University of Cambridge from 1959-61. Over the course of his career, he turned increasingly to historiography and man's developing view of the past. He thought that individual personalities were more important than great systems of government or economics in historical study. He earned a B.A. degree from Peterhouse, Cambridge in 1922. He earned an M.A. degree from Cambridge University in 1926. He was a fellow at Cambridge in 1928-79. He served as editor of the Cambridge Historical Journal from 1938 to 1955. He was knighted in 1968. He is remembered chiefly for two books, including The Whig Interpretation of History and The Origins of Modern Science.