Born in the 1700s, John Lingard was an English historian, best known for his 8 volume series, The History of England: From the First Invasion by the Romans to the revolution in 1688. Most previously published biographies about Lingard present a fairly standard portrait of the historian as an unbiased filter of primary historical sources that are somehow allowed to speak for themselves. Thereby it is argued in these previous works that Lingard was a balanced historian.

The aim of John Lingard: The Historian as Apologist however is to demonstrate that Lingard was a far more complicated author and character who, while he may have appeared unbiased to the Protestant and Catholic establishments, worked tirelessly to promote the acceptableness of Roman Catholics in the politically reforming climate of the early 19th century - without appearing to do so.

Dr. Cattermole's carefully researched biography will appeal to scholars and general readers who are interested in Roman Catholicism and the history of the 19th century.