Serenity

Abstract

Gooch’s literary output continued to be prodigious during the war and post-war years, right up to the final years of his life. In 1942 he published a collection of articles under the title Studies in Diplomacy and Statecraft, followed by Courts and Cabinets in 1944. The latter was typical for much of his later work, what Sir Herbert Butterfield calls ‘books about books’,¹ containing copious quotations from primary authorities such as memoirs. The style of the works was doubtless also influenced by preliminary publication of many sections in article form, usually in The Contemporary Review. A trilogy of enlightened autocrats was opened with Frederick the Great. The Ruler, The Writer, The Man in 1947, followed by Maria Theresa and Other Studies, which largely focused on the relationship of the Queen-Empress with her ‘enlightened’ son Joseph II, in 1951, and concluded with Catherine the Great and Other Studies in 1954. Throughout Gooch took the view that full-scale biographies were not needed. The most satisfactory of the three was the first, dealing with the ruler of Prussia. Here Gooch was very much on ‘home ground’, able to draw on his vast specialised knowledge of Germany and of the enlightenment. The theme was well set in the preface, which referred to Frederick II as ‘a unique and many-sided personality, at once fascinating and repulsive’.