Michael Bentley (historian)
Michael John Bentley (born 12 August 1948) is an English historian of British politics in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. He is Emeritus Professor of Modern History at the University of St Andrews. Early life and career. Bentley was born in Rotherham, South Yorkshire, in 1948, the son of Peter and Jessie Bentley. He attended the University of Sheffield, graduating with a BA in History in 1969, before proceeding to postgraduate study at St John's College, Cambridge. From 1977 to 1995 Bentley taught history at Sheffield. He then moved to the University of St Andrews , where he was appointed Professor of Modern History; he is now Emeritus. As of 2021, he is Senior Research Fellow and Stipendiary Lecturer in History at St Hugh's College, Oxford. In 2011 he was made a fellow of the Royal Historical Society. Critical reaction. Boyd Hilton has called Bentley's "Politics Without Democracy 1815–1914" "a wonderfully 'inside' account of life at the top", whilst K. Theodore Hoppen claims the book "provides an interesting (if allusive) study of attitudes". Personal life. Bentley is married to the historian Sarah Foot.