Edward Gibbon’s “The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire” was published 250 years ago

1776, just a few months before the American Declaration of Independence. Gibbon, who was 38 at the time, would devote the rest of his life to completing what is still the most influential work of history ever written in English: 

six volumes in all, with the last of its million and a half words heading to the press 12 years later, in 1788, the year George III became manic and delusional and France suspended payments on its huge national debt.

What exactly one gleans from Gibbon, though, has always depended on who is doing the gleaning.

Cosmopolitans read him as a defender of tolerance against religious extremism. Anti-authoritarians see him as a champion of republican government over one-man rule. Nationalists quote him on the perils of immigration. The current manosphere cites him as a seer on the dark power of women and the effeminate.

All the things we consider normal, dear and true will one day pass away, as they did for the thousands of emperors, queens, citizens, soldiers, philosophers, priests and parents who populated “Decline and Fall.” 

Charles King New York Times 13 July 2026

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/07/13/opinion/edward-gibbon-empires-fall.html

Dr. King is a professor at Georgetown and the author of a forthcoming book on “The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire.”

Lisa Magnusson och Martin Wolf om romarriket - Tänker Killar på romarriket mer eller mindre varje dag?

https://englundmacro.blogspot.com/2023/09/lisa-magnusson-och-martin-wolf-om.html