Herbert Fisher and his political and intellectual role in Britain (1914-1940)

Abstract

Political figures left an important impact on the history of peoples despite differences in opinions about those figures. Herbert Fisher is considered one of those important figures in English political and cultural history, especially during the most important period in modern and contemporary history on the European continent. This personality took on several roles in its political and cultural stages during his confrontation with political action in Britain, in addition to his intellectual and cultural activity and his assuming several political and legislative positions. He performed remarkable activity in a stage that is considered one of the most important stages of British history, extending from the end of the nineteenth century until the end of the first half of the twentieth century. During his university life and the beginnings of his cultural and intellectual formation, he took more than one direction and more than one side. At first, he wanted to study ancient history, then the Middle Ages, and after that, philosophy, but he backed down from it, especially since one of the philosophy professors advised him that whoever takes this path is either a thinker with his own philosophical theory, or a supporter of one of the philosophical doctrines and wants to spread that doctrine and thought, which made Herbert lean towards modern history and then dive into it and his studies. Herbert Fisher lived a long life, full of momentous events that Great Britain went through since the end of the nineteenth century and throughout the twentieth century. Fisher witnessed them, and they affected him, and this is what we found in studying his biography and the stages of its development. As a result of his extensive knowledge and culture, he became of interest to the British government, which led to his entry into political work and playing an important and pivotal role in addressing and diagnosing many laws, cases and circumstances that required intervention, especially in years that were important in British political history, represented by the outbreak of the First World War and what resulted from it inside Britain or on the international level, then the Second World War, which was more severe on the international reality.