Henry Cabot Lodge had a long and controversial political career as representative and senator from Massachusetts from 1887 to 1924 and as majority leader of the Senate from 1918 until his death. His prominence as a leader of the Republican party, culminating in his leadership of the opposition to the Wilsonian version of the League of Nations following World War I, has left his reputation as historian in eclipse. But, in fact, he was one of America's very first professionally trained historians, and he produced a large body of historical writing, some of it remarkably innovative for its day and much of it widely read.

Lodge was born in Boston on 12 May 1850, the only son of John Ellerton Lodge, a prosperous merchant involved in the China trade. His mother was Anna Cabot, granddaughter of George Cabot, the prominent Federalist leader. Born into a society and class that was convinced of its...