Lectures on Modern History

Sir John Emerich Edward Dalberg-Acton, 1st Baron Acton, KCVO (1834-1902), commonly known as simply Lord Acton, was an English historian, the only son of Sir Ferdinand Dalberg-Acton, 7th Baronet and grandson of the Neapolitan admiral, Sir John Acton, 6th Baronet. He was a master of the principal foreign languages and began at an early age to collect a magnificent historical library, with the object - which, however, he never realized - of writing a great “History of Liberty. ” In politics, he was always an ardent Liberal. Acton took a great interest in America, considering its Federal structure the perfect guarantor of individual liberties. Acton became the editor of the Roman Catholic monthly paper, The Rambler, in 1859, on John Henry (later Cardinal) Newman’s retirement from the editorship. In 1862, he merged this periodical into the Home and Foreign Review. His works include: A Lecture on the Study of History (1895), The Life of Mandell Creighton (1904), Lectures on Modern History (1906), Historical Essays and Studies (1907), The History of Freedom and Other Essays (1907) and Lectures on the French Revolution (1910).