Arthur Bryant

Who was Arthur Bryant?

Sir Arthur Wynne Morgan Bryant, CH, CBE, was an English historian, columnist for the Illustrated London News and man of affairs. His books included studies of Samuel Pepys, accounts of English eighteenth- and nineteenth-century history, and a life of George V. Whilst his scholarly reputation has declined somewhat since his death, he continues to be read and to be the subject of detailed historical studies. He moved in high government circles and his books were devoured by the ruling elite; he was the favourite historian of at least three prime ministers: Churchill, Attlee, and Wilson.

Bryant's historiography was often based on an English romantic exceptionalism drawn from his nostalgia for an idealized agrarian past. He hated modern commercial and financial capitalism, he emphasized duty over rights, and he equated democracy with the consent of "fools" and "knaves".