W. H. Greenleaf

William Howard Greenleaf (14 April 1927 – 10 March 2008) was a British political scientist.

Early life He was born in Thornton Heath, Surrey to a father who was a regimental sergeant major in the British Army. He was educated at Whitgift School in Croydon before performing his National Service in the Royal Navy.

His three volume work, The British Political Tradition, examined the influence of socialism, conservatism and liberalism on British politics. It was called "magisterial" by Rodney Barker and he was working on a fourth volume at the time of his death. In 1983 it won the Political Studies Association's prize for the best book on political science.

Works Order, Empiricism and Politics (Oxford University Press, 1964). Oakeshott's Philosophical Politics (Longmans, 1966). The British Political Tradition, Volume One: The Rise of Collectivism (Routledge, 1983). The British Political Tradition, Volume Two: The Ideological Heritage (Methuen, 1983). The British Political Tradition, Volume Three: A Much Governed Nation, Part 1 (Routledge, 1987).