[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.
1 comment:
All this tells me is that Grafton may be the founder of The Impossibly Long Sentence Club of London.
The 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
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