A Lecture on the Study of History: Delivered at Cambridge, June 11, 1895

by John Emerich Edward Dalberg-Acton

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144 pages, Paperback

First published November 28, 2008

About the author

John Emerich Edward Dalberg-Acton, 1st Baron Acton, and usually referred to simply as Lord Acton, was an English historian.

Reviews

[Miles Smith · Rating 3 out of 5]

Acton's lecture posits a now fairly familiar argument about the development of modern history. Acton's Roman Catholicism takes him some distance down the road of blaming Luther for progressivism, but he refuses to indulge in the more asinine renderings from amateurish Roman scholars active today. Acton's work is commendable because he seemed to see the English Civil War as a far more significant event than even the so-called Reformation of the early sixteenth century.

[Richard Majewski · Rating 2 out of 5]

A lecture that was boring like some I ttended in college.

I found it hard to stay engaged in this book. I did appreciate the need to be rigorous and forthcoming when writing history that will withstand the test of time.

[Adam · Rating 2 out of 5]

Pretty standard for the time I guess. Wasn’t expecting much and I was right, but I found him quite easy and enjoyable to read at least. Just a very standard and outdated essay on historiography