Green, John Richard

John Richard (1837-1883), an eminent English historian. He was born at Oxford and was graduated at that university in 1859. He entered the ministry, but failing health and differences of opinion led him to seek a position as a librarian. He drifted through magazine writing into serious historical composition. A Short History of the English People, published in 1874, attained instant success. "What Macaulay had done for a period of English history, Green did for it as a whole," said one critic. A more extended work, The History of the English People, followed. It is one of the standard histories of England. As compared with other historians, Green paid less attention to wars, rulers, and parliaments, and more attention to the development of the arts and sciences and the comforts of common life. The nature of his work is well expressed by the titles he chose. Later he planned an extended critical work of many volumes. Two of these, the Making of England and the Conquest of England, he completed before his death. See Froude; Macaulay