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Acton, John (Lord Acton)
John Emerich Edward Dalberg Acton was a British peer, historian, and correspondent. Although his direct involvement in politics was limited and he published no single, major work in any field, he was a noted historian of political thought, a major figure in European liberal Catholicism, and an influential player in the liberal movement in British politics.
Life
Acton was born in Naples, Italy, January10, 1834, to Sir Ferdinand Richard Acton and Marie, the daughter of the Duke of Dalberg, Germany. Acton’s life reflected this cosmopolitan and aristocratic background: he traveled widely, conversed fluently in the major European languages, and resided for long periods in England, Germany, and Italy alike. At age three, Acton’s widowed mother remarried; his stepfather, George Leveson-Gower, would be Lord Granville, foreign minister of ...
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