A History of Histories : Epics, Chronicles, Romances and Inquiries from Herodotus and Thucydides to the Twentieth Century /
John Burrow.
- London : Penguin, 2009.
- 352 p.: 19 cm.
"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 the West, 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. With a light step and graceful narrative, he gathers together over 2,500 years of the moments and decisions that have helped create Western identity. This unique approach is an incredible lens with which to view the past. Standing alone in its ambition, scale and fascination, Burrow's history of history is certain to stand the test of time. " (Publisher's Website) CONTENTS Acknowledgements Introduction: A history of histories? Prologue: Keeping Records and Making Accounts: Egypt and Babylon Part I - GREECE 1. Herodotus: The Great Invasion and the Historian's Task 2. Thucydides: The Polis - The Use and Abuse of Power 3. The Greeks in Asia Xenophon: The Persian Expedition The Alexander Historians: Arrian and Curtius Rufus Part II - ROME 4. Polybius: Universal History, Pragmatic History and the Rise of Rome 5. Sallust: A City for Sale 6. Livy: From the Foundation of the City 7. Civil War and the Road to Autocracy: Plutarch, Appian and Cassius Dio 8. Tacitus: "Men fit to be slaves" 9. A Provincial Perspective: Josephus on the Jewish Revolt 10. Ammianus Marcellinus: The last Pagan Historian 11. General Characteristics of Ancient Historiography Part III - CHRISTENDOM 12. The Bible and History: The People of God 13. Eusebius: The Making of Orthodoxy and the Church Triumphant 14. Gregory of Tours: Kings, Bishops and Others 15. Bede: The English Church and the English People Part IV - THE REVIVAL OF SECULAR HISTORY 16. Annals, Chronicles and History Annals and Chronicles Pseudo-History: Geoffrey of Monmouth Secular History and Chronicle: William of Malmesbury's modern History and the Scurrilities of Matthew Paris Two Abbey Chronicles: St. Albans and Bury St. Edmunds 17. Crusader History and Chivalric History: Villehardouin and Froissart Villehardouin's ''The Conquest of Constantinople'' Froissart: ''Matters of Great Renown'' 18. From Civic Chronicle to Humanist History: Villani, Machiaveli and Guicciardini Part V - STUDYING THE PAST 19. Antiquarianism, Legal History and the Dicovery of Feudalism 20. Clarendon's History of the Rebellion: The Wilfulness of Particular Men 21. Philosophic History Hume: Enthusiasm and Regicide Robertson: ''The State of Society'' and the Idea of Europe Gibbon: Rome, Barbarism and Civilization 22. Revolutions: England and France Macaulay: The Glorius Revolution Carlyle's French Revolution: History With a Hundred Tongues Michelet and Taine: The People and the Mob 23. History as the Story of Freedom: Constitutionnal Liberty and Individual Autonomy Strubbs's Constitutionnal History: From Township to Parliament Modernity's First-born Son: Burckhardt's Renaissance Man 24. A New World: American Experiences The Halls of Montezuma: Diaz, Prescott and the Conquest of New Spain Outposts in the Wilderness: Parkman's History of the Great West Henry Adams: From Republic to Nation 25. A Professional Consensus: The German Influence Professionalisation German Historicism: Ranke, God and Machiavelli Not Quite a Copernican Revolution 26. The Twentieth Century Professionalism and the Critique of 'Whig History'. History as a Science and History as an Art 'Structures': Cultural History and the Annales School Marxism: The Last Grand Narrative? Anthropology and History: Languages and Paradigms Supressed Identities and Global Perspectives: World History and Micro-History Select Bibliography Index