François Pierre Guillaume Guizot was a French historian, orator, and statesman. He played a significant role in French politics before the Revolution of 1848, actively opposing as a liberal the reactionary King Charles X before his overthrow in the July Revolution of 1830, then in government service to the "citizen king" Louis Philippe, as the Minister of Education, 1832-1837, ambassador to London, Foreign Minister 1840-1847, and finally Prime Minister of France from September 19, 1847 to February 23, 1848. His six-volume series "A Popular History of France" is an attractive and engrossing narrative, and easily readable in English, thanks to the translation by Robert Black.