Edward Gibbon The Historian
Condition: SECONDHAND
This is a secondhand book. The jacket image is a photograph of the exact copy we have in stock. This image shows the condition of this book. Further condition remarks are below.
Condition remarks:
Condition: Good to fair. Jacket: No dust jacket. Page Condition: Good - possible tanning. Markings: possible previous owner inscription.
Few historians have cast as long a shadow over Western intellectual life as Edward Gibbon, whose monumental The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire redefined the boundaries of historical scholarship. Joseph Ward Swain's Edward Gibbon the Historian presents a rigorous and illuminating study of the man behind this towering achievement, chronicling Gibbon's intellectual formation, his methods, and the forces — personal, political, and philosophical — that shaped his singular vision of antiquity. Swain, formerly Chairman of the Department of History at the University of Illinois, argues with precision and authority that Gibbon's genius lay not merely in his erudition but in his capacity to synthesise vast swaths of historical evidence into a compelling and ironic narrative. The work examines Gibbon's place within the Enlightenment tradition, his relationship to classical sources, and the critical reception of his magnum opus across centuries. For anyone drawn to the history of ideas or the craft of historical writing, this study raises an enduring question: what truly makes a historian great?
Author: Joseph Ward Swain
Format: Hardback
Published: 1966, Macmillan / St. Martin's Press
Genre: Biography
Condition remarks:
Condition: Good to fair. Jacket: No dust jacket. Page Condition: Good - possible tanning. Markings: possible previous owner inscription.
Few historians have cast as long a shadow over Western intellectual life as Edward Gibbon, whose monumental The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire redefined the boundaries of historical scholarship. Joseph Ward Swain's Edward Gibbon the Historian presents a rigorous and illuminating study of the man behind this towering achievement, chronicling Gibbon's intellectual formation, his methods, and the forces — personal, political, and philosophical — that shaped his singular vision of antiquity. Swain, formerly Chairman of the Department of History at the University of Illinois, argues with precision and authority that Gibbon's genius lay not merely in his erudition but in his capacity to synthesise vast swaths of historical evidence into a compelling and ironic narrative. The work examines Gibbon's place within the Enlightenment tradition, his relationship to classical sources, and the critical reception of his magnum opus across centuries. For anyone drawn to the history of ideas or the craft of historical writing, this study raises an enduring question: what truly makes a historian great?