Journeys to England: the early life and works of J.P. Mayer

Abstract

ABSTRACT The German-born Tocqueville scholar Jacob-Peter Mayer (1903–92) was for many years the editor-in-chief of the complete works of Tocqueville and the director of the Tocqueville Research Centre at the University of Reading. Before he left Germany in 1936, he worked as a researcher in the archives of the Social Democratic Party and was involved in anti-Nazi activity in Berlin. In 2018, the University of St Andrews obtained a large archive of his papers that has shed light on some of his lesser known activities during war-time England, including work he carried out for the government. This paper utilises these unpublished documents to provide a chronological account of Mayer’s life up to the late 1940s, when he began editing the works of Tocqueville. It examines the friendships he formed with such people as Adam von Trott, R.H. Tawney, and William Temple, the books he wrote, and his struggle to have his views about propaganda considered at the highest levels of government during the war. It also highlights how his interpretations of Marx and Tocqueville influenced the way these two writers were received in the West, and examines his belief that modern mass society was undergoing a crisis in values.