A History of Histories. Epics, Chronicles, Romances and Enquiries from Herodotus and Pucydices to the Twentieth Century.

Abstract

Awards: Long listed for the Cundill Prize in Historical Literature, 2009. Long listed for the Cundill Prize in Historical Literature, 2009. An analysis of the study of the past and its implications in the Western world, from ancient times to the present day, looks at the work of individual historians and how they presented the past in terms of their perspectives, beliefs, and historical periods. Introduction. A History of Histories? -- Prologue: Keeping Records and Making Accounts: Egypt and Babylon -- pt. 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 -- pt. 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 -- pt. 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 -- 16. Bede: The English Church and the English People -- pt. IV. The Revival of Secular History -- 16. Annals, Chronicles and History -- 17. Crusader History and Chivalric History: Villehardouin and Froissart -- 18. From Civic Chronicle to Humanist History: Villani, Machiavelli and Guicciardini -- pt. V. Studying the Past -- 19. Antiquarianism, Legal History and the Discovery of Feudalism -- 20. Clarendon's History of the Rebellion: The Wilfulness of Particular Men -- 21. Philosophic History -- 22. Revolutions: England and France -- 23. History as the Story of Freedom: Constitutional Liberty and Individual Autonomy -- 24. A New World: American Experiences -- 25. A Professional Consensus: The German Influence -- 26. The Twentieth Century.