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Oliver Cromwell is a fascinating summary of the man and...)
Oliver Cromwell is a fascinating summary of the man and the political forces that combined to create and sustain the eventual Lord Protector.
This late 19th century biography follows the personal and political life of Cromwell, who rose from middle class roots, to become the revolutionary leader of England, and, as this text argues, the greatest military leader this country has ever produced.
Frederic Harrison describes in detail, with generous quotes from Cromwells own hand, how the eventual Protector saw God in everything, and especially in his own success. The author also draws parallels with the rise of socialism, rationalism and democracy and describes the defeat of Charles as the end of the medieval concept of monarchy.
But Harrison does indicate that England was perhaps not prepared for such a radical change as establishing a Republic, and does not hurry through the various difficulties the Protector faced in the post-civil war years.
The overall tenor of the biography is however resoundingly that of praise, Harrison naming Cromwell the greatest ruler this country ever had in the closing pages of the book.
Given modern images of the puritanical tyranny of Cromwells rule, and the romanticised vision of cavalier Royalists, readers might be surprised by Harrisons sympathies. But it is just this now uncommon historical lens which makes Harrisons biography such an intriguing read.
Frederic Harrison (18311923) was a lawyer and teacher, later positivist and author, who dabbled extensively in politics, education, philosophy and history. Harrison's judgements and reminiscences of other writers are found in The Choice of Books (1886), Studies in Early Victorian Literature (1895), and Tennyson, Ruskin, Mill and other Literary Estimates (1899). Invited by Macmillan, the publisher of these volumes, to write the popular studies Oliver Cromwell (1888) and William the Silent (1897), he also proved adept at assimilating secondary sources.
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(Trieste Publishing has a massive catalogue of classic boo...)
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Frederic Harrison was a British jurist and historian.
Background
Harrison was born on October 18, 1831 in London, England, the son of Frederick Harrison (1799-1881), a stockbroker and his wife Jane, daughter of Alexander Brice, a Belfast granite merchant. He was baptised at St. Pancras Church, Euston, and spent his early childhood at the northern London suburb of Muswell Hill, to which the family moved soon after his birth.
Education
Harrison was educated at King's College school and at Wadham College, Oxford, where, after taking a first-class in Literae Humaniores in 1853, he became fellow and tutor.
Career
Harrison was called to the bar in 1858, and, in addition to his practice in equity cases, soon began to distinguish himself as an effective contributor to the higher-class reviews. Two articles in the Westminster Review, one on the Italian question, which procured him the special thanks of Cavour, the other on Essays and Reviews, which had the probably undesigned effect of stimulating the attack on the book, attracted especial notice. A few years later Mr Harrison worked at the codification of the law with Lord Westbury, of whom he contributed an interesting notice to Nash's biography of the chancellor. His special interest in legislation for the working classes led him to be placed upon the Trades Union Commission of 1867-1869; he was secretary to the commission for the digest of the law, 1869-1870; and was from 1877 to 1889 professor of jurisprudence and international law under the council of legal education. A follower of the positive philosophy, but in conflict with Richard Congreve as to details, he led the Positivists who split off and founded Newton Hall in 1881, and he was president of the English Positivist Committee from 1880 to 1905; he was also editor and part author of the Positivist New Calendar of Great Men (1892), and wrote much on Comte and Positivism. Of his separate publications, the most important are his lives of Cromwell (1888), William the Silent, (1897), Ruskin (1902), and Chatham (1905); his Meaning of History (1862; enlarged 1894) and Byzantine History in the Early Middle Ages (1900); and his essays on Early Victorian Literature (1896) and The Choice of Books (1886) are remarkable alike for generous admiration and good sense. In 1904 he published a" romantic monograph" of the 10th century, Theophano, and in 1906 a verse tragedy, Nicephorus. An advanced and vehement Radical in politics and Progressive in municipal affairs, Mr Harrison in 1886 stood unsuccessfully for parliament against Sir John Lubbock for London University. In 1889 he was elected an alderman of the London County Council, but resigned in 1893. George Gissing, the novelist, was at one time their tutor; and in 1905 Mr Harrison wrote a preface to Gissing's Veranilda. As a religious teacher, literary critic, historian and jurist, Mr Harrison took a prominent part in the life of his time, and his writings, though often violently controversial on political and social subjects, and in their judgment and historical perspective characterized by a modern Radical point of view, are those of an accomplished scholar, and of one whose wide knowledge of literature was combined with independence of thought and admirable vigour of style. In 1907 he published The Creed of a Layman, Apologia pro fide mea, in explanation of his religious position. He died on January 14, 1923.
In 1870 Harrison married Ethel Berta, daughter of Mr William Harrison, by whom he had four sons, including the journalist and litterary critic Austin Harrison. George Gissing, the novelist, was at one time their tutor; and in 1905 Harrison wrote a preface to Gissing's Veranilda. One of his sons, Christopher René Harrison, was killed in World War I.