John Grigg is a good measure of the turnaround that has taken place in attitudes to Lloyd George. Twenty years ago he was still generally regarded as a tricky villain, clever but unprincipled. Asquith, ousted in 1916, had his revenge in the history books: accounts of the leadership crisis were dominated by a tradition of Asquithian historiography heavily influenced by Lady Violet Bonham Carter. The alternative view was associated with Lord Beaverbrook, and who believed him? Answer: A. J. P. Taylor. It was Taylor, first in his own writings, then as Director of the sadly short-lived Beaverbrook Library where the Lloyd George papers were opened in 1967, who launched and presided over the revisionist reaction which has thoroughly reversed the received opinion of Lloyd George, and practically buried the reputation of poor old Asquith in the process.

What It Means

This is a placeholder explanation generated by the low-overhead model. It interprets "John Grigg is a good measure of the turnaround that has taken place in attitudes to Lloyd George. Twenty years ago he was still generally regarded as a tricky villain, clever but unprincipled. Asquith, ousted in 1916, had his revenge in the history books: accounts of the leadership crisis were dominated by a tradition of Asquithian historiography heavily influenced by Lady Violet Bonham Carter. The alternative view was associated with Lord Beaverbrook, and who believed him? Answer: A. J. P. Taylor. It was Taylor, first in his own writings, then as Director of the sadly short-lived Beaverbrook Library where the Lloyd George papers were opened in 1967, who launched and presided over the revisionist reaction which has thoroughly reversed the received opinion of Lloyd George, and practically buried the reputation of poor old Asquith in the process." in the context of "John Campbell, 'The moralities of politics', The Times (7 February 1985), p. 11" to mean that wisdom is timeless.