About this ebook
The History of England from the Accession of James II is the five-volume work by Lord Macaulay. It covers the 17-year period from 1685 to 1702, encompassing the reign of James II, the Glorious Revolution, the coregency of William III and Mary II, and up to William III's death. Macaulay's approach to writing the History was innovative for his period. He consciously fused the picturesque, dramatic style of classical historians such as Thucydides and Tacitus with the learned and factual approach of his 18th-century precursors such as Hume, following the plan laid out in his own 1828 "Essay on History".The History is famous for its brilliant ringing prose and for its confident, sometimes dogmatic, emphasis on a progressive model of British history. According to this view, England threw off superstition, autocracy and confusion to create a balanced constitution and a forward-looking culture combined with freedom of belief and expression.
About the author
Thomas Babington Macaulay was born in Leicestershire, England on October 25, 1800. He was educated at Trinity College, Cambridge University. He became a lawyer, but continued to be interested in politics. He became a member of Parliament and rose to the peerage in 1857. Although he held a number of important cabinet posts, the effects of his sweeping educational reform, while in India, are his most enduring contribution to the Whig government. His main literary work was his multi-volume The History of England. He died on December 28, 1859.
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