For many historians, the Levellers have come to represent an early foreshadowing of the political and social advances that later became a hallmark of the American and French Revolutions. But for other historians, the Levellers represent how a 21st century perspective can thwart objective scholarly inquiry. For these historians, the legacy of the Levellers has been immersed in a modern mythology that has the appearance of 17th century history but is, in reality, more akin to modern interpretations of social equality. In other words, the Levellers have fallen victim to the dangerous plague of "presentism."