Henry Thomas Buckle

History of Civilization in England - Volume 1

• Broschiertes Buch

Produktbeschreibung

English historian Henry Thomas Buckle (1821-62) was born into the family of a wealthy London merchant. A child of delicate health, and tutored privately at home, he never attended university. Nevertheless, it was clear that he was meant for intellectual pursuits and by the age of twenty he was a formidable chess player. With his love of books and reading, he set out on an ambitious plan to write a fourteen-volume history of civilisation, and at the same time to put historical research on a more scientific basis. The work would have included a greater number of countries, but due to his early death, only two volumes exist. Published in 1857, this is the first of two volumes that make up Buckle's unfinished history of civilisation. It focuses on England and France, and their intellectual, political, religious and social histories.

Produktdetails

• Verlag: Cambridge University Press
• Seitenzahl: 884
• Erscheinungstermin: 24. August 2011
• Englisch
• Abmessung: 216mm x 140mm x 51mm
• Gewicht: 1223g
• ISBN-13: 9781108036436
• ISBN-10: 1108036430
• Artikelnr.: 34162394

Autorenporträt

Henry Thomas Buckle was an English historian, author of an unfinished History of Civilization, and an accomplished amateur chess player. He is also referred to as "the Father of Scientific History". Buckle, the son of rich London merchant and shipowner Thomas Henry Buckle (1779-1840) and his wife Jane Middleton (d. 1859) of Yorkshire, was born on November 24, 1821, in Lee, London (Kent County). He has two sisters. His father died in January 1840. Buckle's "delicate health" made him unsuitable for the typical formal schooling or games of middle-class youngsters. However, he enjoyed reading. This qualified him to be "educated at home" by his mother, whom he adored until her death in 1859. Buckle completed one year of formal education at Gordon House School when he was fourteen years old. Buckle requested "to be taken away from school" after his father promised him a reward for winning a math competition. He learned everything on his own after that. Buckle later stated, "I was never much tormented by what is called education, but allowed to pursue my own way undisturbed." Whatever I am currently expected to know, I taught myself." Buckle initially distinguished himself as a chess player when he was nineteen years old. He was widely regarded as one of the best in the world. In match play, he defeated Kieseritsky and Loewenthal.

Inhaltsangabe

1. Statement of the resources for investigating history, and proofs of the
regularity of human actions. These actions are governed by mental and
physical laws: therefore both sets of laws must be studied, and there can
be no history without the natural sciences; 2. Influence exercised by
physical laws over the organization of society, and over the character of
individuals; 3. Examination of the method employed by metaphysicians for
discovering mental laws; 4. Mental laws are either moral or intellectual.
Comparison of moral and intellectual laws, and inquiry into the effect
produced by each on the progress of society; 5. Inquiry into the influence
exercised by religion, literature, and government; 6. Origin of history,
and state of historical literature during the middle ages; 7. Outline of
the history of the English intellectual from the middle of the sixteenth to
the end of the eighteenth century; 8. Outline of the history of the French
intellect from the middle of the sixteenth century to the accession to
power of Louis XIV; 9. History of the protective spirit, and comparison of
it in France and England; 10. The energy of the protective spirit in France
explains the failure of the Fronde. Comparison between the Fronde and the
contemporary English rebellion; 11. The protective spirit carried by Louis
XIV into literature. Examination of the consequences of this alliance
between the intellectual classes and the governing classes; 12. Death of
Louis XIV. Reaction against the protective spirit, and preparations for the
French Revolution; 13. State of historical literature in France from the
end of the sixteenth to the end of the eighteenth century; 14. Proximate
causes of the French Revolution after the middle of the eighteenth century.