History and the Enlightenment - Hardcover

Trevor-Roper, Hugh

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0300139349 ISBN 13: 9780300139341

Publisher: Yale University Press, 2010

Synopsis

Arguably the leading British historian of his generation, Hugh Trevor-Roper (1914–2003) is most celebrated and admired as the author of essays. This volume brings together some of the most original and radical writings of his career—many hitherto inaccessible, one never before published, all demonstrating his piercing intellect, urbane wit, and gift for elegant, vivid narrative. This collection focuses on the writing and understanding of history in the eighteenth century and on the great historians and the intellectual context that inspired or provoked their writings. It combines incisive discussion of such figures as Gibbon, Hume, and Carlyle with broad sweeps of analysis and explication. Essays on the Scottish Enlightenment and the Romantic movement are balanced by intimate portraits of lesser-known historians whose significance Trevor-Roper took particular delight in revealing.

About this title

About the Author:

The late Hugh Trevor-Roper (Lord Dacre of Glanton) was Regius Professor of History at the University of Oxford. Among his numerous books is the best-selling The Hermit of Peking: The Hidden Life of Sir Edmund Backhouse.

From Publishers Weekly:

Trevor-Roper earned high praise for scholastic chops and stylistic felicity in such books as Europe's Physician (published posthumously). Unfortunately, the cramped confines of this collection prove to be an insufficient outlet for his gifts. Focusing on the historiography of the Enlightenment, a subject which Trevor-Roper had largely abandoned by the '70s, the essays here trace the rise and fall of the "philosophic" historians, who were interested in presenting the past as more than just a series of tableaux. Trevor-Roper evidently shared their perspective and his essays initially evoke the excitement of this revolution in thought. But repetition soon sets in. Fine essays on Conyers Middleton, a heretical and professionally frustrated Enlightenment academic, and the influence of Romantic literature, particularly that of Sir Walter Scott, whose novels were "being read all over Europe" at the time, only serve to make the surrounding dullness more evident. Few will find a full reading necessary or pleasurable, but as a window into Trevor-Roper's thoughts on a heady intellectual epoch it should find enduring usefulness.
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About this edition

• Publisher: Yale University Press
• Publication date: 2010
• ISBN 10: 0300139349
• ISBN 13: 9780300139341
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 314