Remembering Paul Johnson: Our Greatest Popular Historian

The journalist and historian Paul Johnson wrote more than 50 books, many of them magisterial surveys, such as Modern Times, a history of the world during the 20th century. He never taught at a university — his huge sales meant the world was his classroom.

But, when he died in London last week at the age of 94, every obituary was sure to mention near the top his political conversion: In the 1970s he left the Labour Party and joined the Conservatives, even becoming a sort of mentor for Margaret Thatcher, whom he first met when they studied at Oxford at the same time.

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John Fund

John Fund is National Review’s national-affairs reporter.

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The journalist and historian Paul Johnson wrote more than 50 books, many of them magisterial surveys, such as Modern Times, a history of the world during the 20th century. He never taught at a university — his huge sales meant the world was his classroom.

But, when he died in London last week at the age of 94, every obituary was sure to mention near the top his political conversion: In the 1970s he left the Labour Party and joined the Conservatives, even becoming a sort of mentor for Margaret Thatcher, whom he first met when they studied at Oxford at the same time.