History: James Macpherson’s Narrative Prose Histories

Chapter 3 examines his three major works of history writing from the first half of the 1770s: The Introduction to the History of Great Britain and Ireland (1771); The History of Great Britain from the Restoration to the Accession of the House of Hannover (1775); and the Original Papers, containing the Secret History of Great Britain from the Restoration to the Accession of the House of Hannover, with Memoirs of James II (1775). We examine Macpherson’s prefatory material to these works, where he engages in explicit historiographical discussion about how he writes history. Here, we see Macpherson applying Blair’s ideas about truth and impartiality to writing about both the ancient Celtic past and the more recent history of Britain. In these works, Macpherson develops a particular concern with sources, evidence, and footnotes, in a historiographical practice which aligns closely with that of Robertson and Gibbon in their history writing of the 1770s. We then address how Macpherson comments historiographically throughout the main texts of his historical narratives. Like Hume, we see Macpherson wrestling with the balance between narrative and philosophy. In particular, Macpherson uses stadial ideas to interpret the evolution of the British constitution.