author
James White
1803–1862
A Scottish clergyman and popular historian, he wrote brisk, accessible books that brought English, French, and church history to a wide Victorian readership. His work was admired in his own day for making large subjects readable and lively.
1 Audiobook
The Eighteen Christian Centuries
by James White
About the author
Born in Midlothian in March 1803, he was the younger son of John White of Dunmore, Stirlingshire, and studied first at Glasgow University before matriculating at Pembroke College, Oxford, in 1823. He graduated in 1827, took Anglican orders, and later held country curacies before becoming perpetual curate of St James's Chapel, Brighton, in 1841.
Alongside his clerical work, he built a reputation as a historical writer. He contributed to Blackwood's Magazine and published several well-known books, including The Eighteen Christian Centuries, A History of France, and The History of England from the Earliest Times to the Year 1858. Contemporary notices describe him as a writer with a gift for presenting broad stretches of history in a clear, engaging way.
He died at Brighton on March 24, 1862. Although not widely remembered today, his books were once valued as lively introductions to major periods of European and Christian history.