John Lord

John Lord (1810–1894) was an American historian and one of the most successful public lecturers of the nineteenth century. Born in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, and educated at Dartmouth and Andover Theological Seminary, he was briefly a Congregational minister before devoting himself to lecturing on history in the United States and England, where he spoke at Oxford and Cambridge. His lectures, delivered without notes to large audiences for fifty years, were eventually published as Beacon Lights of History in eight volumes (1884–1896). His other books include The Old Roman World (1867), Ancient States and Empires (1869), a textbook for colleges and schools.