"Two books by Sir Lewis Namier, The Structure of Politics at the Accession of George III (2 vols., 1929; rev. ed. 1957) and England in the Age of the American Revolution (1930), challenged the basis upon which Lecky and those who followed him had written of the reign. Once these two books had appeared it was impossible to write usefully on the political history of the reign without taking account of this brilliant scholarly achievement."