Baron John Emerich Edward Dalberg Acton Acton

Born in Naples on January 10, 1834, Lord Acton grew up between British and continental European worlds and became one of the best-known liberal Catholic thinkers of the nineteenth century. He was educated largely in Europe, studied under the historian Ignaz von Döllinger, and developed a lifelong interest in the moral responsibilities of power, conscience, and historical judgment.

Acton served as a Liberal member of Parliament and built a reputation as a writer, editor, and public intellectual. He is most often remembered for the warning that concentrated power is dangerous, but his work ranged far beyond a single famous sentence: he wrote about liberty, church and state, revolution, and the duty of historians to judge wrongdoing honestly, even when it was committed by admired institutions or leaders.

Later in life he became Regius Professor of Modern History at Cambridge. Although he left much of his larger historical project unfinished, his essays, lectures, and letters made him a lasting influence on political thought and the study of history.