Alan Taylor English historian Date of Birth: 25.03.1906 Country: Great Britain

Biography of Alan Taylor

Alan John Percival Taylor was an English historian who specialized in European diplomacy of the 19th and 20th centuries. He was born on March 25, 1906, in Birkdale, Lancashire. His parents were wealthy and held left-wing views, which he inherited. Both of them were pacifists who opposed participation in World War I, and they sent their son to a Quaker school, which played a role in shaping his pacifist beliefs. Although Taylor's mother was a member of the Comintern and one of his uncles was a founder of the British Communist Party, Taylor broke ties with the Communists in 1926 due to their ineffective methods.

After leaving the Communist Party, Taylor became a staunch supporter of the Labour Party and remained a member for over 60 years. Despite the rift with the Communists, he visited the Soviet Union twice, in 1925 and 1934. In 1927, Taylor graduated from Oxford University and began working on his dissertation on the influence of Chartism on the European revolutions of 1848. However, this topic did not pan out, and he switched to the unification of Italy, which resulted in his first book, "The Italian Problem in European Diplomacy," published in 1934.

From 1930 to 1938, Taylor lectured at the University of Manchester, and in 1938, he joined the faculty of Magdalen College, Oxford, where he taught modern history until 1963. His lectures were incredibly popular, and he often had to schedule them for early mornings to accommodate the large number of attendees. In 1964, the university declined to renew his contract due to the controversy surrounding his book "The Origins of the Second World War," and Taylor became a lecturer at the Institute of Historical Research at the University of London.

During World War II, Taylor served in the Home Guard and developed friendly relationships with some of the Eastern European statesmen who had emigrated, including former Hungarian President Count Mihály Károlyi and Czechoslovak President Edvard Beneš. This friendship helped him gain a better understanding of the events in that region. Taylor also worked for the government and the military during the war as an expert on Central Europe. He frequently appeared on radio broadcasts and participated in various public events.

Taylor was married three times. He married Margaret Adams in 1931, and they divorced 20 years later, having four children together. His second wife was Eve Crosland, and they married in 1951 and divorced in 1974. They had two children together. After divorcing Margaret, Taylor continued to live with her while also living with Eve. He married Hungarian historian Éva Haraszti in 1976. In 1984, Taylor suffered severe injuries when he was hit by a car, which led to his retirement in 1985. In his later years, he battled Parkinson's disease and was unable to write. His final public appearance was in 1986 at his 80th birthday celebration, where he delivered a speech carefully crafted to hide the extent of his illness.

In 1987, Taylor moved to a nursing home in London, where he passed away on September 7, 1990, at the age of 84.