Bancroft, having trained in the leading German universities, was an accomplished scholar, whose magisterial "History of the United States, from the Discovery of the American Continent" covered the new nation in depth down to 1789. Bancroft was imbued with the spirit of Romanticism, emphasizing the emergence of nationalism and republican values, and rooting on every page for the Patriots. His masterwork started appearing in 1834, and he constantly revised it in numerous editions. Along with John Gorham Palfrey (1796–1881), he wrote the most comprehensive history of colonial America. "The universalist theory of national origins, as put forth by an ante-bellum historian like George Bancroft, had made the American Revolution not only the fruit of a specific historical tradition, but also a creed of liberty for all mankind."