The weapon of pedants, the scourge of undergraduates, the bete noire of the "new" liberated scholar: the lowly footnote, long the refuge of the ... read full description
reviews
Dec 26, 2011
Jim
rated it: 
A recent café conversation about footnotes induced me to excavate Grafton's "curious history," a book that had long been buried next to The Devil's Details. I enjoyed it – which probably says as much about me as that I own two books on such a topic or indulge in such conversations.
Does the world of Serious Readers divide among those who prefer footnotes to endnotes? Who knew that the marvelous footnotes of Edward Gibbon's Decline and Fall began as endnotes, and only came to More...
Does the world of Serious Readers divide among those who prefer footnotes to endnotes? Who knew that the marvelous footnotes of Edward Gibbon's Decline and Fall began as endnotes, and only came to More...
Jan 07, 2012
Nelson
rated it:
I remember being sensitized in graduate school to footnotes when I read the work of a mentor. His habitual practice was to footnote wildly (or rather, endnote wildly). And his favorite technique for obscuring a fishy argument or claim was to stick something in the note that attested to some minor premise in the sentence at issue, while his major flyer went completely unsupported. A cursory glance at his notes suggested that every surprising claim was buttressed on careful scholarship and wide
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Sep 11, 2010
Mark
rated it:
Grafton, Anthony. 1997. The Footnote: A Curious History. Rev. ed. Cambridge, Mass: Harvard University Press.
This was the first book I read for the 12 Books, 12 Months Challenge.
I don’t think I have much to say about this book. I did enjoy it but it wasn’t exactly what I was expecting. It was both more and less. It was more in that it was focused, and fairly deeply, on the footnote in history; i.e., in historical writing or history as discipline. It was less in that it was More...
This was the first book I read for the 12 Books, 12 Months Challenge.
I don’t think I have much to say about this book. I did enjoy it but it wasn’t exactly what I was expecting. It was both more and less. It was more in that it was focused, and fairly deeply, on the footnote in history; i.e., in historical writing or history as discipline. It was less in that it was More...
Aug 02, 2011
Malcolm
rated it: 
Who cares about footnotes? Historians for one thing – these are the places where we flaunt our research and carry on debates with others about tangential subjects. Whereas this may seem like a simple book about the footnote as a thing, it is also about changes in the way historians have worked and in historiography. One of the most enigmatic books I've ever read, and one of the best about my line of work.
Oct 17, 2011
Sycamore
rated it:
it's alright. i still don't understand where the footnote originated, and i still care about as much as when i was initially forced to read this book. tries to be too clever. grafton's writings on edward gibbon and his occasional biographical sketches of renaissance historians are the best parts.
May 18, 2010
Steven
rated it:
An unusual history of the footnote (well, maybe any history of the footnote is unusual, eh?). Much more concerned with the history of the content of the footnote rather than so much the mechanics of the footnote.
Aug 11, 2011
Keeley
rated it: 
Grafton does a fantastic job bringing out the liveliest elements in the history of a rather dry topic, the footnote. This is one work of non-fiction I would definitely recommend widely.
Jun 21, 2010
Jason
rated it: 
Much more dry than I was led to believe, and seemed to be all about Gibbon and Ranke. A bit dissappointing, but a nice idea.
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Jul 14, 2008
Colin
rated it:
I write a lot of sarcastic footnotes when I'm writing. I erase many of them before showing anything to anyone. Reading accounts of Gibbons' footnotes really made me want to leave them in. And it made me really want to read The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire.
There is something to be said for "minor histories," when they can bring out how different attitudes towards minor things have major consequences. It's particularly effective in books like this, which toe the line More...
There is something to be said for "minor histories," when they can bring out how different attitudes towards minor things have major consequences. It's particularly effective in books like this, which toe the line More...
Jun 16, 2008
Joy
rated it:
This sounds like the literary equivalent of Sominex, but take my word for it. This man is beyond brilliant. I would read anything anything he writes.
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