Henry Thomas Buckle (24 November 1821 – 29 May 1862) was an English historian, the author of an unfinished History of Civilization and a strong amateur chess player. He is sometimes called "the Father of Scientific History".

Early life and education

Buckle, the son of Thomas Henry Buckle (1779–1840), a wealthy London merchant and shipowner, and his wife, Jane Middleton (d. 1859) of Yorkshire, was born at Lee, London (Kent County) on 24 November 1821. He had two sisters. His father died in January 1840.

Education

As a boy, Buckle's "delicate health" rendered him unsuited for the usual formal education or games of middle-class youth. However, he loved reading.

Father's death

Buckle's father died in 1840. Buckle inherited £20,000. This inheritance allowed Buckle to live the rest of his life in reading, writing, and travel.

Death of his mother (1859)

On 1 April 1859, Buckle's mother died. Shortly afterward, under the influence of this "crushing and desolating affliction", he added an argument for immortality to a review he was writing of John Stuart Mill's essay On Liberty.

Other women in life

Although love for his mother dominated his life, there were other instances of his love for women. At 17, he fell in love with a cousin and "challenged a man to whom she was engaged". He fell for another cousin, but his parents objected.

In 1861, when Buckle went to Egypt, he invited "one Elizabeth Faunch, the widow of a carpenter, to join him.... Mrs. Faunch refused his invitation, but there is some evidence that the two had been engaged in a liaison for some time".

History of Civilization in England

thumb|Title page of the first edition of History of Civilization in England

thumb|Buckle, age 24

The description of History of Civilization in England is taken from the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition (1911):

The New York Times (1861)

There was a review of Buckle's History of Civilization in England. Vol II in The New York Times. The review concluded, "notwithstanding these imperfections, we still regard the History of Civilization as perhaps the most important contribution to modern historical science.... It is easy for one to make a great many very superficial objections to Mr. Buckle's mode of treating history..., but the more one comes up with the grandeur of his method, the less disposition there will be to make such objections.... His influence on the thought of the present age cannot but be enormous; and if he gives us no more than we already have in the two volumes of the magnum opus, he will still be classed among the fathers and founders of the Science of History".

The Portland Daily Press (1862)

A review of Buckle's newly published Essays appeared in the direct predecessor of the Portland Press Herald on Saturday, 27 December 1862. The editors wrote of Buckle: "a solitary unremitting student, with no encouragement save from the home circle, and no opportunity of measuring himself with rivals, he naturally, with all his wealth of learning, command of language, and vigor of thinking, fell into those pitfalls of rashness and inaccuracy which lie in wait for the recluse".

Dostoevsky's Notes From Underground (1864)

The paranoid narrator of Fyodor Dostoevsky's Notes From Underground discusses Buckle's theories: "Why, to maintain this theory of the regeneration of mankind by means of the pursuit of his own is to my mind almost the same thing... as to affirm, for instance, following Buckle, that through civilisation mankind becomes softer, and consequently less bloodthirsty and less fitted for warfare. Logically it does seem to follow from his arguments. But man has such a predilection for systems and abstract deductions that he is ready to distort the truth intentionally, he is ready to deny the evidence of his senses only to justify his logic. I take this example because it is the most glaring instance of it. Only look about you: blood is being spilt in streams, and in the merriest way, as though it were champagne. Take the whole of the nineteenth century in which Buckle lived. Take Napoleon—the Great and also the present one. Take North America—the eternal union [an ironic reference to the ongoing American Civil War<nowiki>]</nowiki>. Take the farce of Schleswig-Holstein.... And what is it that civilisation softens in us? The only gain of civilisation for mankind is the greater capacity for variety of sensations—and absolutely nothing more".

The Encyclopædia Britannica (1910)

Buckle did not define the general conceptions with which he worked: "civilization", "history", "science", "law". Therefore, "his arguments are often fallacies". Furthermore, "he sometimes altered and contorted the facts" and "he very often unduly simplified his problems". Nevertheless, "many of his ideas... have been more precisely elaborated by later writers on sociology and history" and his work was immensely valuable in provoking further research and speculation".</blockquote>

Robert Bierstedt (1981)

In his History of Civilization in England, "Buckle criticized historians on the ground that they were too much interested in biography and in military and political history and failed to seek universal principle or laws". In contrast, "Buckle was confident that it was possible to construct a science of society on the basic of inductions from history". His difficulty was the "sheer quantity of materials that would have to be mastered." Herbert Spencer said that Buckle "'took in' more than he was able to organize".

Works

"The Influence of Women on the Progress of Knowledge"

  • Buckle's only lecture