Thomas Hodgkin

Born on July 29, 1831, Thomas Hodgkin was an English historian and a member of the prominent Quaker Hodgkin family. He is chiefly remembered for his major historical studies, especially Italy and Her Invaders, a wide-ranging work on the fall of the Western Roman Empire and the peoples who reshaped Europe.

Hodgkin was not a conventional academic for most of his life. He worked in business before becoming widely known for historical writing, and his books helped bring complicated early medieval history to general readers without losing sight of the original sources.

He died on March 2, 1913. Today he is remembered as a careful and enthusiastic historian whose writing opened up late Roman and early medieval history for a broad audience.