Lowell, Abbott Lawrence (1857–1943)

US historian. In 1896 his Government and Parties in Continental Europe attracted wide notice. In 1900 he was apppointed professor of the science of government at Harvard; in 1909 he became president of the university. He had an enormous influence on educational methods at Harvard.

He was born in Boston, and was a brother of the poet Amy Lowell. He was educated at Harvard and in Germany, and practised as a barrister 1880–1897.

His other publications include The Government of England (1908), Public Opinion and Popular Government (1913), and What a College President Has Learned (1938).