View source for George Peabody Gooch

{{Short description|British journalist & politician (1873-1968)}}
{{EngvarB|date=July 2016}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=July 2016}}
[[File:George_Gooch.png|thumb|George Gooch]]
'''George Peabody Gooch'''  {{postnominals|country=GBR|OM|CH|FBA}} (21 October 1873 – 31 August 1968) was a British journalist, historian and [[Liberal Party (UK)|Liberal Party]] politician. A follower of [[John Dalberg-Acton, 1st Baron Acton|Lord Acton]] who was independently wealthy, he never held an academic position, but knew the work of historians of continental Europe.<ref>Donald R. Kelley, ''Frontiers of History: Historical Inquiry in the Twentieth Century'' (2006), p. 101.</ref>

==Personal life==
Gooch was born in [[Kensington]], London, the son of Charles Cubitt Gooch, a merchant banker and business associate of prominent merchant banker and philanthropist George Peabody for whom he was named, and Mary Jane Gooch, ''née'' Blake. His eldest brother was [[Henry Cubitt Gooch]], a future Conservative MP. He was educated at [[Eton College]], [[King's College London]] and [[Trinity College, Cambridge]], where he gained a [[British undergraduate degree classification|First]] in History.<ref>{{acad|id=GC891GP|name=Gooch, George Peabody}}</ref> He won the [[Thirlwall Prize]] in 1897, but failed to gain a fellowship at Trinity despite the support of Lord Acton.

==Member of Parliament==
He was elected at the [[1906 United Kingdom general election|general election of 1906]] as Liberal Member of Parliament for [[Bath (UK Parliament constituency)|Bath]], but lost the seat at the [[January 1910 United Kingdom general election|general election of January 1910]].<ref name="craig1885-1918">{{cite book
 |last=Craig
 |first=F.&nbsp;W.&nbsp;S.
 |author-link= F. W. S. Craig
 |title=British parliamentary election results 1885–1918
 |orig-year=1974
 |edition= 2nd
 |year=1989
 |publisher= Parliamentary Research Services
 |location=Chichester
 |isbn= 0-900178-27-2
 |page=66
}}</ref> Whilst an MP he voted in favour of the 1908 Women's Enfranchisement Bill.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://api.parliament.uk/historic-hansard/commons/1908/feb/28/womens-enfranchisement-bill-1|title=WOMEN'S ENFRANCHISEMENT BILL.  |website=[[Hansard|Parliamentary Debates (Hansard)]]|date=28 February 1908|access-date=25 March 2016}}</ref> He stood again in Bath at the [[December 1910 United Kingdom general election|general election in December 1910]], but did not regain the seat,<ref name="craig1885-1918" /> and was unsuccessful again when he stood at a by-election in [[Reading (UK Parliament constituency)|Reading]] in November 1913.<ref>Craig, op. cit., page 174</ref>

Gooch succeeded [[Richard Stapley (politician)|Sir Richard Stapley]] in 1919 as Chairman of the Sir Richard Stapley Educational Trust. During the 1930s, in seeing that war was approaching, he encouraged the Trust to put aside a small fund to assist the educational needs of Second World War refugees.<ref>{{Cite web|title=History|url=https://www.stapleytrust.org/history|access-date=2021-09-03|website=Stapley Trust|language=en}}</ref>

He was President of the [[Historical Association]] (1922–1925) and of the [[National Peace Council]] (1933–1936).<ref>Gooch 1959</ref> In June 1936 he was elected to serve on the Liberal Party Council.<ref>The Liberal Magazine, 1936</ref>

Gooch edited the ''[[Contemporary Review]]'' from 1911 until 1960.<ref>{{cite news| url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2004/02/18/db1802.xml | location=London | work=The Daily Telegraph | title=News – Telegraph}}{{dead link|date=July 2021|bot=medic}}{{cbignore|bot=medic}}</ref>

==Historian==
After the [[First World War]], Gooch became an influential historian of Europe of the period and was critical of British policy. He was active in the [[Union of Democratic Control]].<ref>[http://www.cercles.com/actors/morgangb.html Cercles-Actors And Witnesses<!-- Bot generated title -->]</ref>

For about ten years from the mid-1920s onwards, he was involved, with [[Harold Temperley]], in the publication of the official British diplomatic history.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.diplomacy.edu/Books/knowledge/Hamilton.htm |title=Hamilton<!-- Bot generated title --> |access-date=8 April 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080510221456/http://www.diplomacy.edu/Books/knowledge/Hamilton.htm |archive-date=10 May 2008 |url-status=dead }}</ref> The selection of Gooch for the project selection was made over the reservations of [[James Wycliffe Headlam-Morley]] and of Temperley himself, who believed that Gooch was too committed to a pro-German position and too critical of Sir [[Edward Grey, 1st Viscount Grey of Fallodon|Edward Grey]].<ref>Keith M. Wilson, ''Forging the Collective Memory: Government and International Historians'' (1996), pp. 15–6.</ref>

Gooch has been noted as a significant [[historical revisionism|revisionist]] historian of the Europe of the early 20th century, in particular in relation to the causes of the First World War.<ref>Annika Mombauer, ''The Origins of the First World War: Controversies and Consensus'' (2002), p. 96.</ref> He has been described as one of the "early revisionists", alongside [[Harry Elmer Barnes]] and [[Sidney Bradshaw Fay]].<ref>Bascom Barry Hayes, ''Bismarck and Mitteleuropa'' (1994), p. 17.</ref>

==Awards and honours==

Gooch received many honours.<ref> Eyck, 1982.</ref>  became a member of the [[Order of the Companions of Honour]] in 1939, and a member of the [[Order of Merit]] in 1963.<ref name=Butterfield/> He was appointed to the [[Pour le Mérite]] in 1954.<ref>{{cite book|chapter=Biographisches Personenregister|title=1949–1954 Der Bundespräsident. Briefe 1949–1954|year=2012|pages=607–668|doi=10.1515/9783110232363.607|isbn=978-3-598-25127-6}}</ref> He was elected [[Fellow of the British Academy]] in 1926 and honorary fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge in 1935.<ref name=Butterfield>{{cite journal|author=Butterfield, Herbert|author-link=Herbert Butterfield|title=George Peabody Gooch, 1873–1968|journal=Proceedings of the British Academy|year=1971|volume=55|pages=311–338|url=http://publications.thebritishacademy.ac.uk/pubs/proc/files/55p311.pdf|access-date=24 March 2021|archive-date=21 January 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220121204426/http://publications.thebritishacademy.ac.uk/pubs/proc/files/55p311.pdf|url-status=dead}}</ref>

==Works==
*''The Second Empire'' (1st ed. 1960)
*''English Democratic Ideas in the Seventeenth Century'' (with [[Harold Joseph Laski]] (1st ed. 1898, 2nd ed. 1927, 3rd ed. 1959)<ref>[https://books.google.com/books/about/English_democratic_ideas_in_the_seventee.html?id=IvoqAAAAIAAJ books.google.com]</ref>
*''History of Our Time, 1885–1911'' (1911)<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/historyourtime01goocgoog|title=History of Our Time, 1885–1911|last=Gooch|first=George Peabody|year=1911|publisher=H. Holt|language=en}}</ref>
*''History and Historians in the Nineteenth Century'' (1913) Second rev. ed. (1952).  New ed. with new historical survey and Preface. (1959)<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0DTHNb1mH3IC|title=History and Historians in the Nineteenth Century|last=Gooch|first=George Peabody|year=2009|publisher=General Books LLC|isbn=978-1-150-55749-1|language=en}}</ref>
*''The Races of Austria–Hungary'' (1917)
*''Germany and the French Revolution'' (1920)<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/cu31924026130447|title=Germany and the French Revolution|last=Gooch|first=George Peabody|year=1920|publisher=Longmans, Green|language=en}}</ref>
*''Life of Lord Courtney'' (1920)<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/lifeoflordcourtn00goociala|title=Life of Lord Courtney|last=Gooch|first=George Peabody|year=1920|publisher=Macmillan and Co., limited|language=en}}</ref>
*''A History of Modern Europe, 1878–1919'' (1923); 2nd ed. 1946<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=IUFIAAAAMAAJ|title=History of Modern Europe, 1878–1919|last=Gooch|first=George Peabody|year=1923|publisher=H. Holt|language=en}}</ref>
*''Franco-German Relations 1871–1914: The Creighton Lecture for 1923'' (1923)<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=K-0eAAAAIAAJ|title=Franco-German Relations, 1871–1914|last=Gooch|first=George Peabody|year=1923|publisher=Longmans, Green|isbn=978-0-598-58950-7|language=en}}</ref>
*''Germany'' (1925)<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=XVkmAQAAMAAJ|title=Germany|last=Gooch|first=George Peabody|year=1931|publisher=Scribner|language=en}}</ref>
*''British Documents on the Origins of the War, 1898–1914'', with [[Harold Temperley]] (11 vols.) (1926–1938)
*''Recent Revelations of European Diplomacy'' (1927; 3rd ed. 1940)<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=bttCAAAAIAAJ|title=Recent Revelations of European Diplomacy|last=Gooch|first=George Peabody|year=1927|publisher=Longmans, Green and Company|language=en}}</ref>
*''Courts and Cabinets. (New York, 1946)''<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-38fAAAAMAAJ|title=Courts and Cabinets|last=Gooch|first=George Peabody|year=1948|publisher=Longmans, Green|language=en}}</ref>
*''Frederick the Great: The Ruler, the Writer, the Man''. (New York, 1947)  (German edition Göttingen 1951)<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YG_WAAAAMAAJ|title=Frederick the Great: the ruler, the writer, the man|last=Gooch|first=George Peabody|year=1990|publisher=Dorset Press|isbn=978-0-88029-481-2|language=en}}</ref>
*''Studies in German History. (London 1948)''<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-38fAAAAMAAJ|title=Studies German History|last=Gooch|first=George Peabody|year=1948|publisher=Alfred Knopf|language=en}}</ref>
*''Maria Theresa: And Other Studies'' (1951)<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=uvkMAAAAIAAJ|title=Maria Theresa: And Other Studies|last=Gooch|first=George Peabody|year=1951|publisher=Longmans, Green|language=en}}</ref>
*''Under Six Reigns'' (autobiography) (1958)<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/undersixreigns0000gooc|url-access=registration|title=Under six reigns|last=Gooch|first=George Peabody|year=1958|publisher=Longmans, Green|language=en}}</ref>
*''Catherine the Great: And Other Studies'' (1966)<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ys4TAQAAIAAJ|title=Catherine the Great: And Other Studies|last=Gooch|first=George Peabody|year=1966|publisher=Archon Books|language=en}}</ref>

==Notes==
{{reflist|colwidth=33em}}

==References==
* Eyck, Frank   ''G. P. Gooch: A Study in History and Politics'' (1982), detailed scholarly biography
* Gooch, G.P. ''Under Six Reigns'' (1958) his autobiography [https://archive.org/details/undersixreigns0000gooc Online free to borrow]
* Hirsch, Felix E. "George Peabody Gooch", '' Journal of Modern History'', Vol. 26, no. 3 (September 1954), pp.&nbsp;260–271 [https://www.jstor.org/stable/1875379 in JSTOR]
* Medlicott, W.H. "G. P. Gooch", ''Journal of Contemporary History'', Vol. 4, no. 1, Colonialism and Decolonization (January 1969), pp.&nbsp;201–203
*  Sarkissian, A. O.''Studies in Diplomatic History and Historiography in Honour of G. P. Gooch, C. H.'' (1963)

== External links ==
* {{Hansard-contribs | mr-george-gooch | George Peabody Gooch }}

{{s-start}}
{{s-par|uk}}
{{succession box
 | title  = Member of Parliament for [[Bath (UK Parliament constituency)|Bath]]
 | years  = [[1906 United Kingdom general election|1906]] – [[January 1910 United Kingdom general election|January 1910]]
 | with   = [[Donald Maclean (British politician)|Donald Maclean]]
 | before = [[Edmond Wodehouse (Bath MP)|Edmond Wodehouse]]<br />[[Wyndham Murray]]
 | after  = [[Sir Charles Hunter, 3rd Baronet|Sir Charles Hunter]]<br />[[Lord Alexander Thynne]]
}}
{{s-end}}
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Gooch, George Peabody}}
[[Category:1873 births]]
[[Category:1968 deaths]]
[[Category:People educated at Eton College]]
[[Category:Alumni of King's College London]]
[[Category:Alumni of Trinity College, Cambridge]]
[[Category:Members of the Order of Merit]]
[[Category:Members of the Order of the Companions of Honour]]
[[Category:Recipients of the Pour le Mérite (civil class)]]
[[Category:English historians]]
[[Category:Liberal Party (UK) MPs for English constituencies]]
[[Category:UK MPs 1906–1910]]
[[Category:Politics of Bath, Somerset]]
[[Category:Fellows of the British Academy]]