Perhaps the most famous example of the "Whig interpretation of history"-the idea that the human story has been inevitably destined for enlightenment, progress, and scientific truth-this five-volume work instantly revolutionized the British understanding of history when its first volume was published in 1848. Though not without its detractors-Karl Marx called author BARON THOMAS BABINGTON MACAULAY (1800-1859), an English politician and historian, "a systematic falsifier of history"-it nevertheless became a standard text, and one that is today required reading for anyone who wishes to explore changing values and ideals in historical scholarship. Volume I introduces the reader to Britain before James II, from life under the Romans and Saxons and the conversion to Christianity to the Monmouth Rebellion of Scotland in 1685 and James II's taking of the throne.