Adventures in Reputation : With an Essay on Some "New" History and Historians

dence. He visited the places he described; he ransacked libraries; he talked and wrote to antiquarians; he took endless notes. It was said of him, scarcely with exaggeration, that he would read twenty books to write a sentence and travel a hundred miles to write a line of description. Admitting all its faults, admitting that much new material has appeared, after two generations of such critical scrutiny as seldom falls to the lot of any work, his History remains astonishingly true, despite the fact that it is readable.And it is more than readable; many books are that. It is one of the few works of its kind in reading which one may lose count of time. Yet admitting this, agreeing, if in nothing else, in that he was a master of historical narrative, in his lifetime critics pointed out that he wrote for masses caught by resounding phrases and dogmatic utterance; and that, in consequence of the spread of education to the lower classes, his fame would probably increase. It was a well-meant sneer, but not good prophecy; for it is probable that Macaulay's History is not as popular now as it was some forty years ago. The change seems to have come about the end of the last century. It was then noted that it was the older generation which appreciated him, the younger which found fault; that Sir James Stephen " could forgive him anything and was violently tempted to admire even his faults," while his son, Leslie, was one of Macaulay's most severe critics.With this we come to the crux of the whole question, the test of an enduring history; and, more than that, the effect of the " progress of society " upon historical writing. This involves far more than changing taste in style; more than the problem of Macaulay's reputation; more than a reaction against what we call " Victorianism." It is a part of larger things; and these, in general, are three. The first is the changing temper of England.Macaulay wrote in the full tide of the Victorian sue-To my true king I offered free from stain Courage and faith; vain faith and courage vain. For him I threw lands, honours, wealth, away, And one dear hope that was more prized than they. Oh thou, whom chance leads to this nameless stone, From that proud country which was once mine own, By those white cliffs I never more must see, By that dear language which I spake like thee, Forget all feuds, and shed one English tear O'er English dust. A broken heart lies here. With keen insight and an all-embracing knowledge of historical backgrounds, Professor Wilbur Cortez Abbott has probed into the repute and into the disrepute of several historical characters and has placed them in their true light. Macaulay, Chesterfield, Queen Victoria, David Hume, and Cromwell come under his scrutiny. He adds to the series an essay on James Bloxham, a farmer who had much business with George Washington; a sketch of Lecompton, the little town in Kansas that played an important part in history just before the Civil War; and finally an article on “Some ‘New’ History and Historians,” which has many wise things to say about the writing of history. The tang and zest of Professor Abbott’s literary style carry his readers along irresistibly. PREFACE CONTENTS ILLUSTRATIONS THOMAS BABINGTON MACAULAY: HISTORIAN LORD CHESTERFIELD: ARISTOCRAT VICTORIA THE GOOD THE HISTORIC CROMWELL DAVID HUME: PHILOSOPHER-HISTORIAN EARLY AMERICANA SOME “NEW” HISTORY AND HISTORIANS INDEX