 Macaulay's approach to writing the "History" was innovative for his period.He consciously fused the picturesque, dramatic style of classical historians such as Thucydides and Tacitus with the learned and factual approach of his 18th century precursors such as Hume, following the plan laid out in his own 1828 "Essay on History".The "History" is famous for its brilliant ringing prose and for its confident, sometimes dogmatic, emphasis on a progressive model of British history.