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Edward Gibbon and the importance of great writing to great history
- m52go 11y ago> A married historian, productive in the way Gibbon was, is not so much a joke but perhaps an impossibility. One can be the author of a vast historical work of the kind of The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, which was 20 years in the composing, or be happily married, but one is unlikely to bring off both. Will Durant was both, in my estimation.
- walterbell 11y agoHe wrote with his wife, winning a joint Pulitzer, https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Will_Durant https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Will_Durant
- lisa_henderson 11y agoYou should include both of them: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ariel_Durant https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ariel_Durant And yet, this is the exception that probes the rule. The above quote has an element of humor in it, and it is basically saying "No modern marriage would allow this, as no modern spouse allow themselves to be ignored for so long." But Will and Ariel Durant did not have a modern marriage. Such a marriage is now illegal everywhere. Will Durant would now get 10 years in jail for announcing his feelings.
- jvandonsel 11y agoAnybody here actually make it all the way through "Decline and Fall"? I've tried a couple of times but given up each time.
- rodgerd 11y agoAs a piece of writing it's excellent. Quoting it in the company of (most) contemporary historians is not going to end well, though.
- AnimalMuppet 11y agoWhy?
- chipsy 11y agoBecause contemporary historiography has moved on and refutes many of Gibbon's propositions. So Decline and Fall is a good read, but also old enough to be a part of history itself.
- eruditely 11y agoWhich parts are refuted?
- chipsy 11y agoExamples of contemporary Gibbon discussion: https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/10xtf2/theory_thursdays_edward_gibbon_and_the_decline/ https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/10xtf2/theor...
- AnimalMuppet 11y agoThat doesn't refute Gibbon's position. At best, it shows opinions to be divided.
- rhema 11y agoI did via audiobook. It's much easier to passively listen until you find something interesting. There are so many little stories in history. For example, leaders of armies burning their own ships as soon as they make landfall. This forces their soldiers to fight or die. The conquistadors who followed this pattern (sinking instead of burning) their ships did not come up with the idea on their own. They drew from history.
- ableal 11y ago> an odd mistake for a historian to make. [final footnote, wrong temple] Well, the text also swaps eastern for western when referring to an emperor ... I don't think I ever read a text so ambiguous about its own declared thesis - the good writing bit - when it makes abundantly clear how much the writer's prejudices flawed the result.
- cafard 11y agoTo quote (approximately) from Clive James (essay in Cultural Amnesia) on Gibbon's style "the Grand National, with fences 10 yards apart, each to be jumped forward and backward; and you have to carry your horse."
- TomDavey 11y agoIf one reads the U.S. Declaration of Independence, published in 1776 (the same year as Volume 1 of D&F), it's written in the same Latinate periodic style. That's just how they wrote in the 18th century. Dinging Gibbon for failing to stand outside his historical period is not really fair. Or try the Federalist Papers, or anything written by the U.S. founding fathers. Same style. Even better, try Fielding's "Tom Jones." Prose as masterly as Gibbon's, but you'll laugh yourself silly at the ribald and bawdy humor, not equaled again until the 20th century. Gotta love the English Enlightenment.