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Which writers criticized Thomas Babington Macaulay’s views of culture and progress?
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Thomas Babington Macaulay, Baron Macaulay
Thomas Babington Macaulay, detail of an oil painting by J. Partridge, 1840; in the National Portrait Gallery, London.
Thomas Babington Macaulay’s views on culture and progress faced significant criticism from several prominent near-contemporary writers. Specifically, his arrogant assumption that English bourgeois standards should serve as a universal norm for other nations, along with the materialism of his judgments, were challenged by:
These critics targeted Macaulay’s political partisanship and his tendency toward special pleading rather than impartial historical analysis, which contrasted with the evolving standards of historical study during that era.1