Eyewitness to History [Hardcover]

John Carey (Editor)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 1, 1989

Civilization's most momentous events come vibrantly alive in this magnificent collection of over three hundred eyewitness accounts spanning twenty-four turbulent centuries--remarkable recollections of battles, atrocities, disasters, coronations, assassinations, and discoveries that shaped the course of history, all related in vivid detail by ovservers on the scene.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

This unusual 700-page anthology of eyewitness accounts invites readers to dine with Attila the Hun, gaze on daffodils with Dorothy Wordsworth, attend Gauguin's impromptu wedding to a Tonga girl and roam Africa with Stanley as he searches for Livingston. Carey, an Oxford professor, author of books on Dickens and Donne, had one criterion for inclusion of the selections: good reportage. Jack London describes a 1906 earthquake ("San Francisco is gone!"); Darwin interacts with friendly birds on the Galapagos; Walt Whitman records Lincoln's murder. The best writing, on balance, is by random observers rather than paid journalists. Some caveats: the selections lean heavily to war, misery, disasters; there's an overemphasis on British and colonial history; haphazard headnotes range from skimpy to nonexistent. These complaints aside, this collection (published in England as The Faber Book of Reportage ) is endlessly fascinating; its firsthand reports of acts of courage, cruelty, intolerance, discovery and simple pleasures burn indelible images into the mind. History Book Club and QPBC selection.
Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

This fascinating collection includes nearly 400 firsthand accounts of events great and small, from the plague in Athens (330 B.C) to the fall of Marcos (1986). Editor Carey's standard for inclusion has been the quality of reporting, not the importance of the event. While most of the pieces record historic eventse.g., "The Death of Socrates, 399 B.C.," "Napoleon Enters Moscow, 14 September 1812," "The First Men on the Moon, 21 July 1969"others are simply charming"Green Children, 1150," "Kitten Overboard, 11 July 1754." A great browsing collectionthough perhaps not for bedtime since many of the accounts deal with war, execution, and diseaseand also useful for teaching history or journalism. Nancy C. Cridland, Indiana Univ. Libs., Bloomington
Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 706 pages
• Publisher: Harvard University Press (January 1, 1989)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0674287509
• ISBN-13: 978-0674287501
• Product Dimensions: 8.6 x 5.8 x 1.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (21 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #817,693 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

20 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Outstanding as a history book and marvellous entertainment, April 30, 2000

By 

Mike Christie (Austin, TX USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Eyewitness to History (Paperback)

John Carey has assembled close to 400 separate short pieces here. Some are eyewitness accounts of important historical events, but more often they are pieces that give you the flavour of a time and place in a way no history text can possibly manage. These stories stay in the mind long after a dry textbook narrative would have faded away.

Some examples: there is a first-hand account of a survivor of the Black Hole of Calcutta in 1756, a story I had read about as a schoolboy but which finally came alive for me when I read this piece. There is a piece by Fanny Burney relating her mastectomy in 1811, performed without anaesthesia of any kind. There's an excerpt of an interview by a British Parliamentary Commission in 1815 with a twenty-three year old woman severely deformed as a result of the terrible conditions in the Leeds factories; this one had me practically in tears. There's an account from someone who had dinner with Attila the Hun; an account of a pipefitter who was at Pearl Harbour; Charlotte Bronte's account of the Crystal Palace--the list is seemingly endless, and endlessly fascinating.

The book rewards skimming, and is hard to put down--just one more story about Trafalgar, or the Civil War, or Caesar . . . .

The only thing I'd like to change about the book is that most of the accounts are from the last 150 years; I'd have enjoyed reading more older pieces. However, it's not John Carey's fault that it is far easier to find recent accounts than old ones, and the many twentieth century tales are just as much fun to read as the older ones.

A terrific book.

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars I wish more history books were like this, October 19, 2000

By 

Danny Hillis (Los Angeles) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Eyewitness to History (Paperback)

Friends of mine who are serious students of history have always told me that it is important to read "primary sources" instead of just the analysis of historians. But as a non-historian, I don't usually have access to eyewitness accounts of historical events. This book gave me that chance. I felt more like a voyeur than a scholar, but basically my friends were right. History seems alive when told by those who were alive to see it.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The closest thing to a time machine., May 17, 2005

By 

Carolyn J. (Ventura, CA United States) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Eyewitness to History (Paperback)

I have a few favorte pieces in here myself: Walt Whitman's account of Lincoln's assasination, (He says the lilacs were in bloom early that year, and so lilacs always remind him of that day . . . )

Pliny's accont of Mount Vesuvious' eruption (he was teenager doing his homework that day when the saw the ash cloud. His Uncle was in charge of some navy vessels, so Uncle organsized a resuce operation. Later, Pliny and his mom fled in the pitch black of ash). He says at the end of his riviting account something like, "So friend, if you are bored to tears with all this detail, remember it is your own fault becuase you asked for this letter." Thank God for that friend.

Also a meeting with Queen Elizabeth. Not much happens, but he describes her awesome and powerful presence, and all the jewels and attendents. You can see she is a true queen, not just an old maid in a fancy costume.

This book is too wonderful.