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Catharine Macaulay

1731 - 1791

About the Author

Macaulay was a radical republican historian who wrote a poplar 8 volume History of England which argued that English history was a failed struggle for virtue and liberty. She believed that virtue and liberty had been achieved by the American colonists and so was a supporter of the American Revolution. She later supported the French Revolution, writing an attack on Burke’s opposition.

In The Library:

• author: Observations on the Reflections of the Right Hon. Edmund Burke, on the Revolution in France (1790)

Quotations:

• Catharine Macaulay supported the French Revolution because there were sound "public choice" reasons for not vesting supreme power in the hands of one’s social or economic "betters" (1790) (21 August, 2006)