John Lothrop Motley (15 April 1814-29 May 1877), historian, was one of the most prominent figures in the mid-nineteenth century "classic age" of historical writing in the United States. He was born into a mercantile family in Dorchester, Massachusetts. His education began at George Bancroft's Round Hill school, continued at Harvard from 1827 to 1831, and then from 1832 to 1834 in Germany, first at the University of Gottingen and then in Berlin. From childhood he was an omnivorous reader and showed a talent for languages which he put to good use in Germany in the study of Roman and international law and classical history. At Berlin, Motley roomed with Otto von Bismarck, who became his lifelong friend and whom he portrayed, thinly disguised as Otto von Rabenmark, in his novel, Morton of Morton's Hope, in 1839.

Motley returned to Boston in 1835 and in 1837 married Mary Benjamin, sister of the writer Park Benjamin. His social...