Harold Livermore

Harold Victor Livermore (born September 29, 1914 in London , † February 28, 2010 ) was a British historian .

biography

After studying at Cambridge University , he was appointed headmaster of the English-speaking St. Julian's School in Carcavelos near Lisbon in the 1941 school year . When he returned to England in November 1942, his aircraft narrowly escaped an attack by a German Air Force fighter .

After the end of World War II, he was for a short time lecturer at Cambridge University and co-workers was then the Ministry of Foreign Affairs ( Foreign Office ) with an activity in Brazil . His long career as one of the most important historians of the Iberian Peninsula began in 1947 with the publication of "The History of Portugal ", an extensive study that established his reputation as the first English-speaking scholar to provide a detailed and well-researched account of England's oldest ally. For this publication he was awarded the Prémio Camões in the field of non-fiction. He then became the educational director of the Hispanic and Portuguese-Brazilian collections at Canning House in London . To this he also acquired the dilapidated Sandycombe Lodge in Twickenham , the former residence of the painter William Turner , which he had restored in the following years.

During this time he also wrote "History of Spain " in 1958 , which in turn was the first comprehensive English-language account of the history of this country. This was followed by shorter treatises on historical subjects, a revision of the "History of Portugal" and other specialist articles. He later accepted a position as professor at the Chair of Hispanic Studies at the University of British Columbia , which he held until 1976. He then worked for several years as a lecturer in Portuguese studies at Cambridge University and the University of Westminster .

His last historical releases included "Portugal: A Traveller's History" in 2004 and "Twilight of the Goths " in 2006 .

In 2006 he was awarded the Order of Infante Dom Henrique for his services to Portuguese history . He was also a member of the Lisbon Academy of Sciences (Academia das Ciências de Lisboa) and the Portuguese Academy of History.

Throughout his life he remained controversial because of his right-wing , anti- liberal stance and was ultimately criticized for his partly uncritical stance towards the regimes of António de Oliveira Salazar in Portugal and Francisco Franco in Spain.

Web links

• THE INDEPENDENT: "Professor Harold Livermore: Historian of Iberia who wrote the prize-winning 'A History of Portugal'" (March 5, 2010)