The Cambridge Companion to Edward Gibbon

by Karen O'Brien (editor), Brian Young (Editor)

Edward Gibbon's History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, published in three instalments from 1776 to 1788, is widely regarded as the greatest work of history in the English language. Starting with the accession of the Roman Emperor Commodus in the late second century CE, Gibbon's work traverses thirteen centuries, encompassing the rises of Christianity and Islam, the collapse of the Roman Empire in the West, and the fall of the Byzantine Empire in 1453. This Companion provides a comprehensive overview of the intellectual roots, contemporary European contexts, literary style and thematic scale of Gibbon's achievement. Alongside the History, it gives an introduction to Gibbon's other works, including the Memoirs he left unfinished at his death and previously unpublished material. Leading international scholars in the fields of classics, geography, history and literature provide a comprehensive account of Gibbon's monumental account of decline, fall and global historical transformation.

Genres: History

260 pages, Paperback

Published June 21, 2018

Reviews

[James Dempsey · Rating 5 out of 5]

Karen O’ Brian is fantastic. A piercingly clear and sober historian. Enjoyed ‘Women in Enlightenment’ and for long had this shelved. The D&F is momentous and only really studied by specialists or men of leisure; and in being neither I was happy to shortcut this loss through the accessible synopsises in this work. My understanding and vicarious admiration of Gibbon largely came through Hugh Trevor Roper, and has been, albeit shallowly, now further compounded and complemented by this companion.

KO’B on Gibbons style particularly fascinated me.

[Alex Nelson · Rating 4 out of 5]

I devoured this in a day, it's a lot shorter than I realized. It's a collection of essays on seemingly random topics, but it's fascinating overall. The two essays which stood out: one discussing the role of geography in Gibbon's "Decline and Fall", the other discussing Gibbon's writing style.

The essay on style seems to be fairly basic. If you've studied classical rhetoric, the essay is rather pedestrian.

The essay on geography was surprisingly intriguing. An apparent commonplace thought in the 1700s was the "Geography is the Eye of History", in the sense that we order historical events chronologically *and* geographically. (Think of a YouTube video of a geographic region with event bubbles, but in the "theatre of the mind".) Gibbon appeared to implicitly subscribe to this idea, while maintaining skepticism of how far the analogy holds. Instead, Gibbon also incorporated geography as a determining factor in history, as a factor which shaped culture (following, e.g., Montesquieu) but Gibbon disagrees with the notion that geography *determines* culture. There's much to say, literally an entire essay!

[Eric · Rating 3 out of 5]

Mixed quality. Whittow essay was great.