Title: A History of Histories
Author: John Burrow

Publication date: 2007
Publisher: Penguin/Allen Lane
ISBN: 9780713993370
Format: Hardback 576 pages

This book, by one of Britain's leading historians, describes the intellectual impact that the study of the past has had in the western world over the past 2500 years. It magnificently brings to life the work of historians from the Greeks to the present, including Livy, Tacitus, Bede, Froissart, Clarendon, Gibbon, Macaulay, Michelet, Prescott and Parkman, explaining their distinctive qualities and allowing the modern reader to appreciate and enjoy them.

The book also aims to change our perceptions of the main turning points in the history of history, and dispels persistent myths, such as that the ancient historians wrote only contemporary history; that the eighteenth century lacked understanding of the past; and that the critical study of sources began only with Ranke in the nineteenth century. The ideas that historians have had about both their own times and their civilization emerge freshly and often unexpectedly. Burrow argues that looking at the history of history is one of the most interesting ways we can try to understand the past.

Strongly Recommended.

Price: £25.00