author
Arthur James Balfour
1848–1930
A philosopher as well as a politician, he spent decades at the center of British public life and rose to become prime minister in the early 20th century. He is also remembered for the 1917 Balfour Declaration, which gave his name a lasting place in world history.
2 Audiobooks
Decadence Henry Sidgwick memorial lecture, 1908
by Arthur James Balfour
Theism and Humanism Being the Gifford Lectures Delivered at the University of Glasgow, 1914
by Arthur James Balfour
About the author
Born in East Lothian, Scotland, on 25 July 1848, Arthur James Balfour was educated at Eton and Trinity College, Cambridge. Before politics fully claimed him, he developed a reputation as an intellectual with strong interests in philosophy, a side of his character that never quite disappeared even during the busiest years of public office.
Balfour was a leading Conservative statesman for many decades. He served as chief secretary for Ireland, later became prime minister of the United Kingdom from 1902 to 1905, and remained an important figure in British politics afterward. During the First World War he served as foreign secretary, and in that role issued the 1917 declaration supporting the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people.
He died on 19 March 1930. Remembered as cool, clever, and sometimes hard to read, Balfour left a mixed but undeniably significant legacy, with influence that stretched from domestic British politics to international diplomacy.