The Transformation of the Roman World Gibbon's Problem after Two Centuries

The Transformation of the Roman World: Gibbon’s Problem after Two Centuries, edited by Lynn White, Jr., revisits one of the most enduring questions in historical scholarship: how to understand the decline and transformation of the Roman Empire. Sparked by Edward Gibbon’s monumental The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, this volume gathers leading historians to reflect on what has changed in two centuries of research, interpretation, and historical consciousness. By juxtaposing what we now know of the late Roman world with Gibbon’s own intellectual framework and with our modern perspectives, the collection creates a dialogue across time about the nature of historical inquiry itself. The essays address the interplay between fact, interpretation, and self-understanding, showing how each generation rewrites the fall of Rome in its own image.

The volume moves across three distinct but interwoven layers: first, a reassessment of what actually occurred in the centuries of Rome’s transformation, illuminated by modern scholarship in archaeology, social history, and late antiquity studies; second, an exploration of Gibbon himself, examining how Enlightenment rationalism, personal temperament, and eighteenth-century assumptions shaped his account; and third, a consideration of the present, reflecting on why contemporary historians perceive the past differently. In combining these vantage points, The Transformation of the Roman World demonstrates that the study of Rome’s decline is not simply an antiquarian pursuit but a mirror through which we see our own intellectual traditions and cultural anxieties. This book will appeal to scholars, students, and readers of Gibbon alike, offering both an updated account of late antiquity and a meditation on history as a discipline of self-discovery.

This title is part of UC Press's Voices Revived program, which commemorates University of California Press’s mission to seek out and cultivate the brightest minds and give them voice, reach, and impact. Drawing on a backlist dating to 1893, Voices Revived makes high-quality, peer-reviewed scholarship accessible once again using print-on-demand technology. This title was originally published in 1966.