Not by Fact Alone: Essays on the Writing and Reading of HistoryThis book consists of essays on master historians including Thomas Babington Macaulay; Edward Gibbon; Thomas Carlyle; Jules Michelet; Alexis de Tocqueville; and other topics. The author underlines the importance of Marx's artful use of language, Carlyle's gift for capturing the flow of history in time, Gibbon's humor and his creation of a benevolent conspiracy between the reader and himself, Macaulay's ability to propel inert facts into motion, and the literary artistry of other great historians. The great historians created suspense, balanced background and foreground, and enabled readers to feel like actual participants in, as well as observers of, events large and small -- and at times acted as prophets and sages, opening up to their readers fresh, sometimes radical, views of the world and of man's place in it. The author describes what he sees as the threat to the art of narrative history brought on by the complexities of social history, and parodies the misplaced use of computer techniques in current writings; the works of truly great historians should be, he believes, not only part of a true education but also the source of great and continuous pleasure. |
Contents
The Use of the Past | 3 |
WHY READ THE GREAT HISTORIANS? | 13 |
AMUSEMENT AND INSTRUCTION | 53 |
Copyright | |
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Adams biography Burckhardt Butterfield called Cambridge Carlyle Carlyle's chap chapter Christian church civil course cultural Decline and Fall early Edinburgh Edinburgh Review eighteenth century English essay fact father feeling Flora Thompson Frederick French Revolution G. M. Trevelyan George Otto Trevelyan Gibbon historian historical writing History of England human Hume Ibid imagination India intellectual J. H. Plumb John Clive later literary literature living Lockhart London Lord Macaulay Macaulay's Michelet modern moral Morris narrative nature never nineteenth century Oxford past perhaps period philosophical political Portrait present public mind question readers reading Reform role Roman Scotland Scottish Scottish Renaissance sense society spirit Strachey Strachey's style theme Thomas Babington Macaulay Thomas Carlyle Thomas Ruddiman thought Thucydides Tocqueville torians Tory Trevelyan turn University University of Edinburgh Wallah Whig interpretation wrote young