John Richard Green

John Richard Green (1837-1883) was an English historian, born in Oxford and educated at Magdalen College School and Jesus College. He took holy orders and spent the 1860s in the East End of London, first as a curate and then as incumbent of St. Philip's, Stepney, until consumption drove him out of parish work and into the librarianship at Lambeth. A Short History of the English People (1874) broke with the reigning fashion for kings and battles and told instead the story of ordinary English life; it sold enormously and made his name at once. He died at Mentone in 1883, leaving The Conquest of England for his wife, Alice Stopford Green, to finish.