Customer Reviews: Read 3 more reviews...
 A beacon of light August 17, 2007
G. J. Weeks (London)
45 out of 46 found this review helpful
"A beacon of light which the passing of two centuries has scarcely dimmed". This is Hague's concluding assessment of Wilberforce. This fine biography should keep that light blazing. I think it will probably be the definitive biography of the great abolitionist for quite some time to come. Hague writes well and keeps one's attention throughout a long book. He is masterful at setting the historical scene. No doubt his previous biography of Wilberforce's friend Pitt was a great help in researching the period. One is given a real feel for a very different world where only men of means could afford to enter politics for getting elected, except to a rotten borough, could mean huge expense. It was a time when party allegiance was not so well developed and Wilberforce maintained his independence as a member of parliament for Yorkshire. He was a friend of Pitt but opposed him over the war with France as he opposed a later government over Queen Caroline. Hague does not fall into the trap of judging an historic figure by more modern criteria. Contemporary critics of Wilberforce disliked his social conservatism. His radicalism was aimed at stopping an evil trade not promoting cause of the poor close to home.Hague explains it. Wilberforce would give no support to those who would be socially disruptive and those applauding the French Revolution. His detestation of what had happened in France, Hague rightly identifies as Wilberforce's opposition to all things against religion.
One expects Hague to be good on the politics of Wilberforce's life but I was pleasantly surprised by his understanding of his subject's Evangelical faith. Christian faith we know transformed Wilberforce from a pleasure seeking young man into an ardent reformer. It was the motivation in all his subsequent life. As well as abolition it also moved him to seek the opening of India to Christian missions. Hague seems to have a sympathetic understanding of Wilberforce's Christianity as well as a great appreciation of his political achievements. here was an MP who was most diligent in his duties though he never held an office of state. There is also admiration for the personal character of his subject. He was a man who made friends, was hugely charitable and a loving husband and father. Here was a notable orator and a man of wit, welcome at the tables of the great and the good. His character was indeed that of a joyful Christian as Piper writes in his short biography. He died impoverished by his own personal charity and the foolishness of his eldest son. He declined ennoblement and wanted a quiet burial place but was laid to rest in Westminster Abbey for his contemporaries judged him to be great as well as good.
Wilberforce August 9, 2007
Sean (Northumberland, UK)
24 out of 25 found this review helpful
William Hague follows up his debut biography of Pitt the Younger with Pitt's best friend and tireless slave-trade campaigner. It is the perfect sophomore effort. Similar era; one of the closest friendships in politics, yet, some great differences between the two great men. Pitt, the son of the great Chatham; by no means wealthy; eager for ministerial power. Wilberforce: from a very wealthy mercantile background; advocating the abolition of the slave-trade as an `Independent' constituent for Yorkshire.
I too disagree with a previous reviewer who seems to criticise Hague's book on his own personal dislike of Wilberforce, not on the merits of the book itself. I have to say that Hague paints a very fair and unbiased account of Wilberforce. Wilberforce considered himself an `Independent', not a Tory. He could be rightly called one of `Pitt's friends' but famously turned against Pitt in opposition to the Revolutionary War; he managed to remain on friendly terms with Fox and Grenville as a matter of fact. Hague does point to certain faults: his licentious youth, his frequent inability to commit to one side of an argument; his complete naivety on military affairs. The biography as a whole however is favourable to what emerges as a brilliant man; Hague quite rightly makes great use of contemporary descriptions of Wilberforce and offers a succinct argument for his policies.
For anyone who believes politics are boring, I cannot recommend this book highly enough. Hague's description of the various machinations building up to the 1807 act is about as dramatic and exiting as it gets. Those were certainly exiting times in politics: two Revolution and two subsequent wars; Irish Union; reform; the trial of Warren Hastings; Catholic emancipation; the slave-trade etc.. Some of the greatest orators of all time graced the Commons' floor: Pitt, Burke, Fox, Sheridan and of course Wilberforce. Later Canning and Castlereagh would be added to that long list of luminaries. It puts our own politics to shame if truth be told.
Hague occasionally juxtaposes his own modern political world with the politics of that era yet never goes overboard while doing it. He instead draws out the eccentricities and bustle of the 18thc election; the lack of a party machine; the greater reliance on debate etc.. It frequently is reminiscent of an early satirical scene in A Pickwick Papers.
Christian Evangelicalism of course was hugely important to Wilberforce. In fairness he never imposed his Christianity though he sometimes despaired of Pitt's relevant lack of religion. Instead he offered guidance to any of his friends so inclined. It's significant that once he went through his dramatic conversion he still remained something of a social animal (despite his best efforts). Wilberforce has an amazing knack of remaining friends with rivals; contemporaries describe him as humorous, amiable and the soul of the party. He saw his own religion as enlightened, benevolent and uplifting; in stark contrast to Methodism which influenced him. Wilberforce never withdrew from life, his own Christianity reinvigorated it.
Hague's book is wonderfully presented with numerous plates; particularly brilliant are the many (nothing less than scathing will do) Gillray sketches. His research and use of sources is impeccable; his prose informative and accessible. All in all, Hague is turning into the new-Roy Jenkins. I like the fact that he seems to specialise in a era; an era I am very interested in as it happens. How about a Charles James Fox book William?
Lessons from History June 5, 2007
Ian (London)
28 out of 36 found this review helpful
Great book. Very informative and moving. It is nice in this anti-imperialistic age to remind ourselves that not every Victorian Englishman was an exploiter of the African masses. As for the author, he is more at ease with literary matters than political ones. A great achievement - and very timely too.
Fascinating history by an impressive historian! July 30, 2007
Geoffrey Woollard (Cambridgeshire, England)
10 out of 16 found this review helpful
I disagree fundamentally with another reviewer who seems to base his opinion of William Hague's book and his qualities as an historian on his (the reviewer's) personal distaste for the author's latest subject, William Wilberforce, the man himself and his doings.
This, in my opinion, is unfair, for, whilst I, too, did not 'take to' Wilberforce and would probably have found him to be an insufferable prig - the Paddy Ashdown of his day - and an overly-religious zealot, I admire Hague's impressive research and his excellent writing and I also seem to detect in the author a previously unnoticed tendency to liberalism. I was in the hall when William Hague made his famous Conservative Party Conference speech at the age of sixteen and he showed then no tendency to liberalism, excepting the economic variety.
I now suppose that he has seen in Pitt and Wilberforce (both the subjects of triumphant tomes from this historian) that, from promising youth, there can emerge powerful and lasting political personalities who were, in their day, though each conservative and/or Conservative in their respective ways, far ahead of their contemporaries in both ability and thinking. Hague himself showed promise in youth and has gained much with more years. (Will he ever be another Pitt or a replacement Wilberforce, though?).
Now, as to why Hague is apparently so sympathetic to Wilberforce is another matter. It is obviously received wisdom today that Wilberforce was right in many matters, especially his successful campaigning against the slave trade and slavery itself, but what I found surprising in Hague's biography was the strength of the case and the powerful reasoning against Wilberforce's attitudes to the slave trade and slavery. And when one sees today the situations in Haiti and Sierra Leone, both of which obtained Wilberforce's ardent support in their earliest years of 'independence,' it is scarcely surprising that Hague's hero's contemporaries and his many opponents should have envisaged the mayhem and disorder that actually occurred and has lasted.
I will end on a more generous note. The fine portrait of Wilberforce by George Richmond shows a man whom I would have been pleased to meet - for a short while, at least - despite his alleged canting hypocrisy. It oozes a handsome decency and is a fine inclusion - amongst many others - in a fine book. Well done, young William!
Wonderful biography of a great, great man September 22, 2008
Mr. D. A. Littlewood (UK)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Some time ago I heard William Hague lecture on Wilberforce. It was a pleasure to hear such a fine speaker so on top of his subject. The lecture lasted an hour but could have gone on for three as far as I was concerned, it was so interesting. The same is true of the book. It is written by a political enthusiast about a fellow politician, in my mind one of the greatest politicians we have ever had. He laid aside a beckoning life of luxury and ease to devote himself to the service of people. He inherited a fortune but spent most of it helping people less fortunate than himself.
Remembered for his fight against the slave trade, Wilberforce was also the founder of over 100 charities. A deeply committed Christian, he also worked tirelessly to reform the manners of England. True, he was not perfect and made mistakes, but then which of us hasn't? He was also a man of his time but although we might not agree with some of his conclusions Hague takes us through the mental agony Wilberforce put his conscience through before he made them.
The book is meticulously researched and brilliantly written. One of the best biographies I have ever read, and I've read quite a few. Strongly recommended!
|
