LITERATURE - Edward Gibbon

The news is often determined to tell us that we live in uniquely critical times, beset by political disasters and afflicted by terrible crises and that the demise of human civilisation is surely imminent. We are encouraged to view the world - and our own lives - in bleak, apocalyptic terms. Oddly, as the great 18th century historian Edward Gibbon shows us, history can be powerfully consoling, not because it tells us that our times are great, but because it shows us how normal large societal troubles really are.

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“The news is often determined to tell us that we live in uniquely critical times, beset by political disasters and afflicted by terrible crises and that the demise of human civilisation is surely imminent. We are encouraged to view the world - and our own lives - in bleak, apocalyptic terms. Oddly, history can be powerfully consoling, not because it tells us that our times are great, but because it shows us how normal large societal troubles really are. The English 18th century historian Edward Gibbon is particularly helpful with this task of bringing us to a less frightened perspective. His massive, elegantly written work covers 1500 years, from the pinnacle of Roman power around the year 180 AD, through the collapse of the Western Empire to the final fall of its last outpost, the city of Constantinople, in 1453. Gibbon started work on the series of volumes around 1770 and completed the final volume on a summer’s evening in 1787 while he was on holiday in Switzerland…”

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