Roberts, F. David 1923–

(David Roberts, Frederick David Roberts)

PERSONAL:

Born November 10, 1923, in Changsha, China; son of Rac C. (a missionary) and Eva Roberts; married Emylou Helene Leedy (a librarian), September 1, 1956. Education: Attended Whitman College; University of Washington, Seattle, B.A., 1948, M.A., 1949; Yale University, Ph.D., 1953. Politics: Liberal.

ADDRESSES:

Home—Lyme, NH.

CAREER:

University of Washington, Seattle, instructor in history, 1952-57; Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH, beginning 1957, started as instructor, became associate professor of history.

WRITINGS:

Victorian Origins of the British Welfare State, Yale University Press (New Haven, CT), 1961.

(As David Roberts) Paternalism in Early Victorian England, Rutgers University Press (New Brunswick, NJ), 1979.

(As David Roberts; with Clayton Roberts) A History of England, Prentice-Hall (Englewood Cliffs, NJ), 1980, 4th edition, 2002.

The Social Conscience of the Early Victorians, Stanford University Press (Stanford, CA), 2002.

Contributor to professional journals.

SIDELIGHTS:

F. David Roberts is a historian who specializes in English history, especially the Victorian era. He is the author of such books as Paternalism in Early Victorian England and The Social Conscience of the Early Victorians. The latter volume is a follow-up to the former, and in it, Roberts examines how the paternalistic social and political views were increasingly challenged by laissez-faire economics and the onset of the industrial age. Roberts also shows how social views that had been mired in class structure and hierarchy were eventually softened by the era's developing consciousness of class welfare and charitable work. History: Review of New Books critic Martin Hewitt noted that the book "is written in the vanishing tradition of the academic magnum opus." Although Anthony Brundage, writing in Albion, felt that "there is … a discernible overlap with Roberts's earlier books," Brundage concluded that this is "hardly surprising given the closeness of the themes." Overall, Brundage found that "Roberts's wide reading and analytical powers have produced a masterful study."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Albion, January 1, 2004, Anthony Brundage, review of The Social Conscience of the Early Victorians, p. 667.

History: Review of New Books, January 1, 2003, Martin Hewitt, review of The Social Conscience of the Early Victorians, p. 66.

Journal of Social History, December 22, 2004, Judith S. Lewis, review of The Social Conscience of the Early Victorians, p. 547.

Victorian Studies, September 22, 2003, Richard W. Davis, review of The Social Conscience of the Early Victorians, p. 142.