ABSTRACT
Strachey's hostility towards militarism, imperialism and other 'fashionable ideals' of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries certainly implies in good modernist fashion a sharp break from his paternal lineage. But there is another and more important confusion which is liable to occur in discussions as to the value of history. Our conception of the past is of course given us by history, and thus the value of history has been shown to consist in its power of guiding and moulding our evolution. On the occasion of the fortieth anniversary of the publication of Eminent Victorians, Clive challenged the critical orthodoxy that saw Strachey as a mere debunker or, in Cyril Connolly's estimation, 'a great anarch', observing that Strachey's portraits communicated more than contempt and amusement. It is quite unnecessary to show laboriously that history produces good results, directly it is admitted that history is good in itself; that is quite a sufficient justification.
