Description

William Edward Hartpole Lecky (1838-1903) was an Irish historian and publicist. He was educated at Kingstown, Armagh, at Cheltenham College, and at Trinity College, Dublin where, with a view to becoming a clergyman in the Church of Ireland, he studied divinity. In 1860 he published anonymously a small book entitled The Religious Tendencies of the Age, but on leaving college he abandoned his original intention and turned to historiography. In 1861 he published Leaders of Public Opinion in Ireland, a brief sketch of the lives and work of Jonathan Swift, Henry Flood, Henry Grattan and Daniel O'Connell, which showed great promise. Lecky then devoted himself to the chief work of his life, A History of England During the Eighteenth Century. In carrying out this task, Lecky displayed many of the qualities of a great historian. The work is lucid in style and extensive in its use of source material. Among his other famous works are: Leaders of Public Opinion in Ireland (1862), The Map of Life (1899), and Historical and Political Essays (1908).