The Research Of Lord Acton’s Historical Thoughts

Lord Acton,one of the most famous historians in the 19^th century,is well known for his adage that"Power tends to corrupt,and absolute power corrupts absolutely."He devoted his whole life into the study of liberalism and its history.He faithfully adhered to the traditional view of liberal history and the basic historical perspectives of ethics and objectivity throughout the study of history.Taking the age as a starting point,Acton produced a introspection,summary and a warning on the practice of liberalism and national character of Europe and the United States,profoundly influenced the history of thought in the 20^th century.Acton,meanwhile,is also a historian with highly social responsibility,which is not only reflected in his transcendent attitude towards history and politics that they should be studied separately,but also lies in the rules he made that history be impartial scientifically rooted in historical archives and data,which has been internalized as professional integrity of the researchers.The dissertation will make an analysis of Acton’s liberal view of history,expound the bonds between liberalism and history from a perspective of historical view,and explore the practice of his historical ideas in the course of history,so that we can make a comprehensive study of his historical thoughts.The dissertation consists of four chapters.The introduction part firstly illustrates the reason and significance of the topic,which emphasizes observing how it run academically at home and abroad,and then explains the main ideas and methods to be used in the dissertation.The first chapter explores the development and evolution of Acton’s historical thoughts from three aspects:the era he lived,his life experience and historiographic track as well as his ideological and theoretical sources.The second chapter focuses on Acton’s liberal view of history.By sorting out the context and connection between liberty and its theory as well as the development process of nation and state,it concludes a historical characteristic that there existing an inherent unity and continuity between liberty and history,which is,"Liberty is the main line of history."The third chapter elaborates Acton’s historical ideas.From his attitude towards historical research and the development of historiography,it summarizes the moral,objective and scientific historical thoughts.The last chapter tries to define and evaluate Acton’s historiography as a whole and further explains the realistic value of it.As an epitome practitioner of modern history and its scientific process among the liberal scholars in the 19^th century Britain,Acton has made significant achievements and theoretical contributions to the research of history,which has high lightened the academic routines,ideological connotation,historical concept orientation and its theoretic pattern in the context of liberalism of the 19^th century Britain.Moreover,it has also reflected Acton’s personality charm,academic talents and style of himself,which has revealed the professional ideal,historical consciousness and social concern of British historians of the 19^th century.