Quotes of the day

“What this whole business goes to show is that Stone is no scholar and Trevor-Roper is no gentleman”.

V.H. Galbraith, Regius Professor of Modern History at Oxford, commenting on Hugh Trevor-Roper’s demolition job on Lawrence Stone in the Journal of Economic History.

“I find it difficult to decide whether T-R is a fundamentally nice person in the grip of a prose style in which it is impossible to be polite, or a fundamentally unpleasant person using rudeness as a disguise for nastiness.”

John Habakkuk, Joint Editor of the Journal of Economic History, in a letter to his fellow-editor, Michael Postan.

Sources: Adam Sisman’s biography of Trevor-Roper, pages 194 & 204.