John Ehrman (1) (1920–2011)

William Pitt the Younger was a precocious politician who became prime minister as the tender age of twenty-four. For the next eighteen years he presided over Britain's recovery from the loss of the American colonies and addressed the growing challenge posed by the French Revolution. John Ehrman's book, the first of a three-volume biography of Pitt, offers an description of Pitt's youth and his early years as prime minister, culminating in his successful management of the Regency Crisis in 1788-9. Yet it offers much more than just an account of his life. To adequately explain his subject's actions and policies, Ehrman also provides a thorough examination of politics and government in late 18th century Britain. The level of detail is impressive, demonstrating Ehrman's thorough understanding of the personalities Pitt dealt with and the problems he faced as prime minister. Though there is little of Pitt's personal life in these pages, this is more reflective of his lack of one rather than any omission on the author's part. The result can be exhausting, but it is unlikely to be surpassed as a comprehensive examination of Pitt's life and times, and it indispensable reading for anyone seeking to understand this critical figure.… (mehr)

Forty percent of the first volume of Ehrman's biography of the younger Pitt concerns finance, administration, and trade, so a person unwilling to deal in-depth with money matters should choose another biography. Those making the effort will be rewarded, for that portion best conveys the attitude of the British government towards the rest of the world. Ehrman is fully supportive of that attitude, and of the Empire. Although I believe the Hamiltonian policy of accommodation to Britain was the wisest course for the new United States to follow, I was surprised to feel a rush of anger against the British "attitude" after immersion in it; but Ehrman's later description of the success of the American preferential tonnage duties wryly notes that policy was the "reward" of America's "tribute to the British example". I was also surprised at my satisfaction at the acclaim given to Pitt at the end of the regency crisis, which ends the volume.

Ehrman's excellent writing style eases the labor of reading a detailed history of a time over two hundred years distant in a country different from mine; but the repeated evocation of emotion in this American reader due to better understanding of leaders, Madison and Pitt, whom I have not previously favored, must mark Ehrman as reaching the peak of excellence in a historian.… (mehr)