[Arnaldo Momigliano] identified an ethnographic tradition of historians interested in foreign customs and rituals, inspired by Herodotus; a political tradition of historians fascinated by statesmen’s decision making and military successes and failures, inspired by Thucydides; a critical tradition of historians of tyranny, inspired by Tacitus; a national tradition of historians struggling to understand the process of building a coherent state, inspired by Polybius and Livy; an antiquarian strand of writers on laws, rituals, and customs, inspired by Dicearchus and Varro; and a massive body of ecclesiastical history, inspired by Eusebius.
So Anthony Grafton introducing Arnaldo Momigliano, Essays in Ancient and Modern Historiography (Kindle Locations 135-138). University Of Chicago Press. Kindle Edition. Grafton continues: "Each of these traditions had its special contours and its particular uses, and they often collided with one another." (Kindle Locations 138-139). The whole book is rewarding, but if you want to follow up this particular thread, just download the Kindle free sample.
All this tells me is that Grafton may be the founder of The Impossibly Long Sentence Club of London.
ReplyDeleteThe sentence starts out and then it continues; and then it continues on, with more information, a bit more' and then meanders to this, and then to that, burbling over various subordinate clauses until the cows come home; scattering predicative (is there such a word) clauses and semicolons like semen in a porno flic until finally I forget what the hell the damn subject was.
Bah! Academic claptrap.
Very Crankily yours,
The New York crank