Bancroft, George
Bancroft, George
(1800 -1891 ) Historian and statesman, born Worcester, Massachusetts; died Washington, DC. As secretary of the navy, 1845 , he built the Naval Academy at Annapolis, and as temporary secretary of war, 1846 , he issued the order to General Taylor that precipitated the Mexican War. He was U.S. Minister to Great Britain, 1846 -1849 , and to Berlin , 1867 -1874 . His most celebrated work is the monumental history of the American colonies (1834 -1874 ). His revised edition (1883 -1885 ) is inferior in scholarship to the original.