Routledge Guides to the Great Books

1 total work

The Routledge Guidebook to Gibbon's History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire

by David Womersley

Published 1 February 2017

Edward Gibbon's History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire immediately captured the attention of a wide readership and has remained popular ever since. However, it is also an extremely complex work, published in multiple volumes, which covers a enormous range of topics and drew on a variety of sources and historiographic traditions. In this guidebook, David Womersley introduces the ideas, context and influence of this monumental work to a modern audience. This book:

• Provides a lucid account of the key arguments and narrative features of The Decline and Fall
• Explains how and where Gibbon is original in his historical arguments
• Balances analysis of notorious elements in the history with less well-known elements
• Relates the narrative of The Decline and Fall to the political background of its own time.