Author: Bancroft, George
Biography:
BANCROFT, George (1800-91: ANBO)
Diplomat and historian. Born in Worcester MA to Aaron and Lucretia (Chandler) Bancroft. He attended Phillips Exeter Academy and then enrolled at Harvard at the age of thirteen. He spent four years in Göttingen, where he earned a doctorate from the Georgia Augusta University in 1820. After two years travelling in Europe, he returned to some teaching, some journalism, some translations, and the first of two marriages. In 1834 he published the first volume of his popular History of the United States, described in ANBO as "a multi-volume sermon"--eventually completed in 10 vols. in 1874. Aligning himself with the Democrats, he never held elected office but served as Secretary of the Navy and later as ambassador to Great Britain and then as US Minister to Prussia. (ANBO 5 Nov. 2017) HJ