History of European Morals from Augustus to Charlemagne: Volume 2

William Edward Hartpole Lecky was a well known Irish historian who wrote at length about the history of the European continent, spanning from antiquity to the 19th century. In 1860 he published anonymously a small book entitled The Religious Tendencies of the Age, but on leaving college he abandoned his original intention and turned to historiography. In 1861 he published Leaders of Public Opinion in Ireland, a brief sketch of the lives and work of Jonathan Swift, Henry Flood, Henry Grattan and Daniel O'Connell, which showed great promise. This book, originally published anonymously, was republished in 1871; and the essay on Swift, rewritten and amplified, appeared again in 1897 as an introduction to a new edition of Swift's works. Two learned surveys of certain aspects of history followed: A History of the Rise and Influence of Rationalism in Europe (2 vols., 1865), and A History of European Morals from Augustus to Charlemagne (2 vols., 1869).

A History of European Morals from Augustus to Charlemagne aroused criticism, with its opening dissertation on "the natural history of morals," but both have been generally accepted as acute and suggestive commentaries upon a wide range of facts. Lecky’s work influenced no less a writer than Mark Twain, who noted that Lecky’s book influenced his writing for Huck Finn and The Prince and the Pauper.

This edition of Lecky’s A History of European Morals from Augustus to Charlemagne Volume 2 is specially formatted with a Table of Contents and is illustrated with over a dozen pictures.