A History of Histories: Epics, Chronicles, Romances and Inquiries from Herodotus and Thucydides to the Twentieth CenturyThis unprecedented book by one of Britain's most admired historians describes the intellectual impact that the study and consideration of history has had in the Western world over the past 2,500 years. Treating the practice of history not as an isolated pursuit but as an aspect of human society and an essential part of the culture of Europe and America, John Burrow magnificently brings to life and explains the distinctive qualities found in the work of historians from the ancient Egyptians and Greeks to the present, including Livy, Tacitus, Bede, Froissart, Clarendon, Gibbon, Macaulay, Michelet, Prescott and Parkman. The author sets out not to give us the history of academic discipline but a history of choices: the choice of pasts, and the ways they have been demarcated, investigated, presented and even sometimes learned from as they have changed according to political, religious, cultural, and (often most important) partisan and patriotic circumstances. Burrow aims, as well, to change our perceptions of the crucial turning points in the history of history, allowing the ideas that historians have had about both their own times and their founding civilizations to emerge with unexpected freshness. Burrow argues that looking at the history of history is one of the most interesting ways we have to understand the past. Certainly, this volume stands alone in its ambition, scale and fascination. |
Contents
PROLOGUE | 3 |
The Great Invasion and the Historians Task | 13 |
The Polisthe Use and Abuse of Power | 30 |
The Greeks in Asia | 51 |
Universal History Pragmatic History | 65 |
A City for Sale | 80 |
From the Foundation of the City | 90 |
Plutarch | 111 |
The Revival of Secular History | 215 |
Villehardouin | 244 |
Antiquarianism Legal History and | 283 |
Philosophic History | 313 |
England and France | 345 |
Hundred Tongues | 354 |
The People and the | 365 |
and Individual Autonomy | 380 |
Men fit to be slaves | 122 |
Josephus on the Jewish Revolt | 141 |
The Last Pagan Historian | 149 |
General Characteristics of Ancient Historiography | 158 |
The People of | 169 |
The Making of Orthodoxy and | 178 |
Kings Bishops and Others | 187 |
The English Church and the English People | 202 |
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Common terms and phrases
abbot Ammianus Anglo-Saxon Chronicle Annales Annales school army Arrian Athenian barbarian became become Bede Bede's bishop Britain Burckhardt called Carlyle Carlyle's Christian Chronicle Church civil Clarendon classical conception conquest constitutional contemporary course crusaders cultural earlier early eighteenth century emperor empire England English European Eusebius example feudal France Fredegar French Revolution G. M. Trevelyan Gaul genre German Gibbon Greek Gregory Gregory's Guicciardini Herodotus highly historical writing historiography human humanist Hume idea interest Italy Josephus kind King later literary Livy Livy's Macaulay Machiavelli Marxist medieval Menocchio ment Michelet modern monks moral narrative nineteenth century notably Orosius Parkman particularly past period Persian political Polybius Pope Prescott reader record Renaissance republic republican Robertson Roman Rome Sallust says Scottish Scottish Enlightenment seems sense sixteenth century social society sometimes story Tacitus Taine theme Thucydides tion tory tradition Whig William wrote Xenophon