Life and Associations

Abstract

As stated at the outset, this is not a biography of Burton. Nevertheless, on the very clear assumption that events and ideas interact with each other, it is important to establish a brief biographical frame of reference to Burton’s developing ideas. This would be important for most surveys of the ideas developing in intellectuals as prolific as Burton, but in his case there is an added dimension, for he has been a practitioner as well as a scholar; his life and work have aroused controversy; and, perhaps most importantly for a man who has produced so much work and had an effect on conventional assumptions about conflict and society, Burton never intended to be an academic.