W&M ScholarWorks Undergraduate Honors Theses Theses, Dissertations, & Master Projects 4-2008 Classical Liberal Stunt Men: Lord Acton, Herbert Spencer, and the Development of Liberalism in Nineteenth-Century Britain Kelly Creed College of William and Mary Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.wm.edu/honorstheses Part of the History Commons Recommended Citation Creed, Kelly, "Classical Liberal Stunt Men: Lord Acton, Herbert Spencer, and the Development of Liberalism in Nineteenth-Century Britain" (2008). Undergraduate Honors Theses. Paper 780. https://scholarworks.wm.edu/honorstheses/780 This Honors Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Theses, Dissertations, & Master Projects at W&M ScholarWorks. It has been accepted for inclusion in Undergraduate Honors Theses by an authorized administrator of W&M ScholarWorks. For more information, please contact
[email protected]. CLASSICAL LIBERAL STUNT MEN: LORD ACTON, HERBERT SPENCER, AND THE DEVELOPMENT OF LIBERALISM IN NINETEENTH-CENTURY BRITAIN A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the Requirements for the degree of Bachelor of Arts with Honors in History from the College of William and Mary in Virginia, by Kelly Creed Accepted for Tuska Benes, Director Kathrin Levitan Robert Leventhal Williamsburg, Virginia April 23, 2008 1 Introduction Anthony Flood, a contributor to the libertarian internet publication LewRockwell.com, wrote concerning the nineteenth-century intellectual, Lord Acton, “…Acton was a libertarian hero. His championing of liberty against power was the central theme of his intellectual life… Needlessly impoverished are those libertarians who fail to embrace him as one of their own.”1 Libertarians, including Flood, love to draw nineteenth-century classical liberals into the present and act as if these past figures are mirror images of themselves.