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Summary: pocock scans ed gibbons writing life
Review: I find writing a bit obscure, complex. Details, however, often interesting.
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Summary: Historiography as biography. A masterpiece
Review: Pocock may provide more detail than many of us are used to, but his study of the emerging historical consciousness of Gibbon does much to provide a compelling version of how the enlightenment worked and provoked Gibbon's own point-of-view. The work then offers more a tour of European enlightenments as they influenced this major British historian. It will add to the pleasure of reading the Decline and Fall as it provides the subtext of how Gibbon transformed the epochs of the Roman Emperors and Byzantium into post-Christian school lessons for modern history. Given the breadth of Pocock's erudition it is not recommended for the academically shallow. The style is challenging, the references intermittently difficult to understand. But even when tempted to subject some of his findings or even his take on major cultural issues to task, his indefatigable marshalling of evidence and telling detail makes this a major work of distinction. Recommended.
Rating:
Summary: Subtext: Not Gibbon's Text
Review: This a masterful display of Pocock's ability to marshal the minutia of history over and against the History under discussion - judging great works by a morass of trivia. The difficulty with such a discussion of Gibbon is its ability to tyrannize the reader's perception of a work by appealing to such a vast amount of data. There is no doubt Pocock may be correct concerning every single point, but one cannot know on his authority alone. The book has scholarly merit, but it should be the last thing on anyone's list who wants to understand Gibbon on Gibbon's own terms.
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