ABSTRACT
Alan John Percivale Taylor was the best-known historian in Britain during the four or five decades after the end of the Second World War. At the time, 1928, when Alan Taylor began his research into the diplomatic history of mid-nineteenth century Europe, diplomatic history was experiencing something of a golden era. It was 'relevant' to many of the contemporary concerns. In the aftermath of the First World War there was much debate about the justness or otherwise of the 'war guilt' part of the Treaty of Versailles, 1919. Alan Taylor worked in the Chancellery in Vienna on diplomatic history, starting off on the theme of Anglo-Austrian relations between 1848 and 1866. The Origins of the Second World War and the furore it aroused made him an international name among readers of the 'quality press' as well as among scholars. Alan Taylor was rightly critical of aspects of the editing of the British series of interwar documents.
