A History of England from the Earliest Times to the Revolution in 1688: Based on the History of David Hume, Incorporating the Corrections and Researches of Recent Historians Continued to the Treaty of Berlin in 1878

This volume represents a significant evolution of David Hume's classic eighteenth-century masterwork, repurposed for a nineteenth-century Victorian audience. By the late 1800s, Hume's original text, while stylistically brilliant, was considered outdated by professional historians who had uncovered new primary sources and perspectives. John Sherren Brewer, a distinguished historian and archivist, was tasked with revising the narrative to incorporate these modern findings, effectively bridge the gap between Enlightenment-era historiography and the more rigorous academic standards of the Victorian period.

The publication effort aimed to provide a comprehensive and reliable survey of English history that extended beyond the seventeenth century, reaching the 1878 Treaty of Berlin. Brewer’s editorial approach was to maintain the readability of the Hume tradition while embedding contemporary scholarly corrections, resulting in a text that functioned as both a literary artifact and a standard educational reference. It was intended for a studious, middle-class readership that valued both the continuity of the original prose and the precision of nineteenth-century historical inquiry.