Eyewitness to History - Softcover

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0674287509 ISBN 13: 9780674287501

Publisher: Harvard University Press, 1989

Synopsis

A carefully selected anthology of eyewitness reports ranges from Thucydides' description of the 430 BC plague in Athens to James Fenton's observations on the fall of President Marcos

About this title

About the Author

John Carey is Merton Professor of English at Oxford University, a distinguished critic, reviewer and broadcaster, and the author of several books, including The Intellectuals and the Masses.

Reviews

This unusual 700-page anthology of eyewitness accounts invites readers to dine with Attila the Hun, gaze on daffodils with Dorothy Wordsworth, attend Gauguin's impromptu wedding to a Tonga girl and roam Africa with Stanley as he searches for Livingston. Carey, an Oxford professor, author of books on Dickens and Donne, had one criterion for inclusion of the selections: good reportage. Jack London describes a 1906 earthquake ("San Francisco is gone!"); Darwin interacts with friendly birds on the Galapagos; Walt Whitman records Lincoln's murder. The best writing, on balance, is by random observers rather than paid journalists. Some caveats: the selections lean heavily to war, misery, disasters; there's an overemphasis on British and colonial history; haphazard headnotes range from skimpy to nonexistent. These complaints aside, this collection (published in England as The Faber Book of Reportage ) is endlessly fascinating; its firsthand reports of acts of courage, cruelty, intolerance, discovery and simple pleasures burn indelible images into the mind. History Book Club and QPBC selection.
Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc.

This fascinating collection includes nearly 400 firsthand accounts of events great and small, from the plague in Athens (330 B.C) to the fall of Marcos (1986). Editor Carey's standard for inclusion has been the quality of reporting, not the importance of the event. While most of the pieces record historic eventse.g., "The Death of Socrates, 399 B.C.," "Napoleon Enters Moscow, 14 September 1812," "The First Men on the Moon, 21 July 1969"others are simply charming"Green Children, 1150," "Kitten Overboard, 11 July 1754." A great browsing collectionthough perhaps not for bedtime since many of the accounts deal with war, execution, and diseaseand also useful for teaching history or journalism. Nancy C. Cridland, Indiana Univ. Libs., Bloomington
Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Edition details

• Publisher: Harvard University Press
• Publication date: 1989
• ISBN 10: 0674287509
• ISBN 13: 9780674287501
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 750
• Editor: Carey John