The Footnote: A Curious History

Rating:
Summary: Review of Anthony Grafton's The Footnote*: a curious history
Review: Although the history of the footnote may seem like a dull topic for discussion, it yields many interesting insights on how historians have practiced their trade. What makes Grafton's account so strong is not only his wit and metaphorical humor, which is often lacking from other academic historians' work, but his detailed and thorough treatment of this seemingly forgotten tool of the intellectual historian. Grafton manages to convey, through reverse chronological order, the origins of the footnote, and in the process manages to explain its use and purpose by those such as Gibbon and Ranke. Perhaps most interesting is Grafton's own use of the footnote. Thorough the mastery of four languages he establishes his authority and even manages to denigrate others with the deadly "Cf." It is not surprising that his pages suffer from the "swelling feet of claylike annotation" that Ranke so eagerly wanted to avoid. Grafton's narrative of the footnote is a useful addition to the reading of any academic historian or student of history.

Rating:
Summary: Review of Anthony Grafton's The Footnote*: a curious history
Review: Review of Anthony Grafton's The Footnote*: a curious history (Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Mass.) 1997

Although the history of the footnote may seem like a dull topic for discussion, it yields many interesting insights on how historians have practiced their trade. What makes Grafton's account so strong is not only his wit and metaphorical humor, which is often lacking from other academic historians' work, but his detailed and thorough treatment of this seemingly forgotten tool of the intellectual historian. Grafton conveys, through reverse chronological order, the origins of the footnote, and in the process manages to explain its use and purpose by those such as Gibbon and Ranke. Perhaps most interesting is Grafton's own use of the footnote. Through the mastery of four languages, he establishes his authority and even manages to denigrate others with the deadly "Cf." It is not surprising that his pages suffer from the "swelling feet of claylike annotation" that Ranke so eagerly wanted to avoid. Grafton's narrative of the footnote is a useful addition to the reading of any academic historian or student of history.

Rating:
Summary: Interesting topic - boring book.
Review: This book was a disappointment to me. The development of the use of footnotes in the study of history is an interesting enough subject. However, the book was tedious to read.

There were some bits of wry humor in a few places, but considering the subject, there could have been much more.

The author assumes the reader has a very detailed knowledge of the academic pursuit of historical studies and that the reader shares the same love/hate relationship with the footnote as generations of historians have consummated.

Perhaps the book reads better in its original German. At any rate, I would pass on this one.