The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, Vol. 1 Paperback – August 1, 1996

I do not recommend buying an edition of "The Decline and Fall" based upon price alone, because for many reasons, which will become clearer to you after reading this complicated and scholarly work, the editions vary in content and price, nor does price alone guarantee quality.

For many hours prior to purchasing, I researched the numerous editions offered by different publishers and read reviews, and discovered a consensus among Gibbon fans in favor of Womersley's unabridged edition, in part because it includes a complete and unmodernized text, Gibbon's own comments and notes, and his famous Vindication, a final and thorough answer to scurrilous critics of his time. All of this is provided at a quite reasonable price, considering the length of the work (in excess of 1,300 pages), albeit in soft cover which I find makes a book easier to read, if slightly less durable.

I recommend buying this new edition from Amazon, instead of the used editions also offered here, because many of them, I discovered after investigating, are not the same as this one I am reviewing (ISBN 0-14-043393-7, which is Volume I). Like I said, there are many editions of Gibbon's masterpiece floating about, old and new, of varying quality and content. The vendors' failure to disclose the ISBN in their descriptions prohibits any purchase by the discriminating. Just pay the seventeen or so bucks for the new book, which is dirt cheap for a work of this magnitude.

There should be no need to defend Gibbon nor his work, which is simply the best I have yet read. I loved history as a boy, even while reading the simple and often stupid books offered in school. Imagine how much more I enjoyed history written by such a master of prose as Gibbon, the most thorough, meticulous and honest historian I have yet encountered.

We owe a debt of gratitude to a historian who has perused enormous quantities of ancient texts in Latin and Greek and other languages, such as would confound the vast majority of readers today, and with his formidable powers of intellect, analyzed their veracity, by comparing one against the other, and judged keenly of their worth. Gibbon had for his time a vast encyclopedic knowledge, for by his own admission, he devoted his life to reading. Gibbon's love was not among humans, but among books. He possessed an excellent understanding of government, which is the more understandable when you discover he served as a Member of Parliament for a number of years. His grasp of military science is explained in part by his service in the militia as an officer. To all these things, we must add an innate, profound understanding of human nature.

Why bother with Gibbon? Why not read the original, the ancient and medieval writers, from whom Gibbon based his work? That is a good question that I asked myself. Here is the answer. We cannot trust the ancient writers to be truthful or accurate in every event. For one thing, they sometimes contradict each other, which means one or both are lying. Also, they leave out important details, which can be pieced together by circumstantial evidence, if you have found it by exhaustive research.

This is where Gibbon comes in. He has performed exhaustive research that consumed a large portion of his scholarly and reflective lifetime. Gibbon is no fool, and never succumbs to the usual vices of enthusiasm or its opposite, cynicism. He is calm, rational, penetrative; just the guide and the mentor you want. He never takes an ancient historian at face value without considering their motives, prejudices, passions, and even their personal histories. Gibbon has studied not just the history, but the historians, and the history of the historian's countries. Not only has Gibbon accumulated and summarized the ancient and medieval texts, but interpreted and analyzed with his considerable deductive powers, to form a whole that is greater than the parts. Thus a novice does better with Gibbon than with the original. Gibbon's copious notes explain where has made interpretations, leaving you free to form different conclusions, should you desire.

Some reviewers are peeved that Gibbon suffers an opinion that disagrees with their own, and for this reason alone, they degrade his work. I experience the same treatment by those who are alarmed that my reviews have an actual opinion instead of being a rubber stamp marked "PERFECTION". If this intolerant philosophy were carried on, then no-one should dare express an unseasonable opinion of anything at all, and we should all become a tribe of dullards. Of course Gibbon expresses many opinions, some the inevitable product of his country, class and times; and this is the mark of intellectual honesty. You should never read without a critical mind, and should be prepared to disagree with an author on some issues, as I do with Gibbon, while agreeing with him on others. I especially favor his ideas concerning the causes and effects of the rise of Christianity, many of which can be observed today.

Look to find a better history than this, in any language, written during any time since the advent of letters. Look far and wide, as long as you like... and then revisit Gibbon, and see whether you have yet found an equal.

Found in a letter dated February 13 1844 from my great-great-great-uncle George Mackenzie in India to his sister Alice in Scotland: "Have you ever read Gibbon's Decline & Fall of the Roman Empire? I am very fond of it for many reasons. It is a grand book and to read it always makes me feel as if my life extended thousands instead of tens of years and as if I could trace out the revolutions of Empires. It is beautifully written and the English of it is to my taste particularly elegant, and except where Gibbon's judgement was obscured by his prejudice, it is true as history can be. His reasonings from the great events which he relates are generally speaking very true and I have heard that there is hardly a better guide for a politician than that history. What an immensely long duration the time of it is - from the year 90 after Christ till the year 1490 or thereabouts in fact almost down to our own times. It is a great ornament to my bookcase and I often read it & prefer it to any novel whatsoever." So the 5 stars are on behalf of Uncle George who sadly died later in 1844 aged 25.

Well, after more than a year of off and on reading I finally finished the first volume of Gibbon's vast chronicle and only have five massive books to go. All in all it has been a wonderful journey, tedious at times, but wonderful! This first volume was first published in 1776 and now, after over 200 years still stands as one of the great pillars in the cannon of Western Literature and of course is still a framework used by historians even to this day.

There are of course three aspects of this work that need to be considered. The first of course is the history. Gibbon is considered by many as the first modern historian. He broke new ground (more about that later), and gives us a very good view of the Roman Empire as seen through the eyes of a man of his time. Secondly, this is most certainly a literary work of no mean quality. It is actually an absolute gem; a work of art is words. Third, there is the history of the history; the placing of Gibbons work as a historical event within itself, which is sometimes overlooked.

Now shear volumes have been written concerning this early study of the Roman culture, both critical and laudatory. I have great doubts that anything I say here will add to this mound of observations which have been gathering since the ink dried on the first printing of the work. I can only give you, the reader, my personal perspectives; keeping in mind that I am not in anyway a historian, theologian nor literary master. No, I am just a common `good old boy,' living in the hills that likes to read, loves history and enjoys a reading challenge.
I have a bound set of these books on my bookshelf and I must admit that they sat there for a couple of years. I would stare at them now and then, fondle them at times late at night, but through shear intimidation of the size, kept putting it off and off. Years ago I did the same thing with Will Durant's massive, multi-volume `The Story of Civilization' before I followed the advice of the shoe commercial..."Just do it." I have never regretted that. Much the same is holding true for Gibbon's work; I decided to "just do it."

Before I go on with the book review, I have some personal suggestions, if I may be so bold, as to the approach is reading this work. First, get over the magnitude of the mass of words found here. Take this first volume is small doses. I will not lie to you; the reading of this first volume is hard word, especially for someone like me with limited intellectual abilities and who is woefully lacking in formal education in this field. Let not this distract you though. You need not have a wonderful educational background or bright and shinning intellect to learn; to come to appreciate the essence of this work. Secondly, when you first start, take the work and break it down into small sections. I would sometimes take an hour just of read and savor a single paragraph, reading it over and over again. The arcane language; the convoluted and complex sentence and paragraph structure (May I use the term "mulifarious?"), will suddenly pop for you (hopefully), and will be like candy to your eye and mind. I further broke the work down into sections, actually taking them out of order. Indeed, I started reading this volume by beginning with the famous, or infamous, depending on how you look at it, Chapters 15 and 16. (More about this later).

To continue, I would also, unless you are already pretty familiar with the chronological history of the Roman Empire, suggest that you have a good outline, a simple outline, of Roman history available. The plethora of rulers, gods, players, etc., can be a bit overwhelming and I found myself quickly lost trying to keep all the players straight. Thank goodness for google and Wikipedia...both were a tremendous help!

I would also encourage you to give the work, as to the writing, a chance. At first, like me, many will find the style as was used in this era difficult to follow. Fear not though, as you read it will begin to flow and suddenly you will find yourself absolutely delighted...or not. If not, then it would probably be best to drop the book and go on to something else...each of us is quite different you know.

It is quite interesting to note that vestiges of Gibbons work are alive and well even to this day. I happen to be in the process of reading two works at this time (concurrently), by Charles Freeman...A.D. 381: Heretics, Pagans, and the Dawn of the Monotheistic State and his previous work, The Closing of the Western Mind: The Rise of Faith and the Fall of Reason These are very nice and well written books and I am enjoying each and learning much. But when you get right down to it, from what I have read so far in these two works, we are getting a very strong dose of Gibbon, warmed over by Freeman. (I must state that Freeman is much easier to read...a delight, as a matter of fact).

I think that one of the (from a historical aspect) things I appreciate the most about Gibbons work is that he was one of the fist historians that treated the writings of the Catholic Church as secondary documents rather than primary. This had not been done all that much before as the Church pretty well had a lock on things; not only religion, but history and science also. This was a bold step on Gibbons part and he certainly took a beating for it at the time...still is, come to think of it. Had Gibbons written what he wrote just a few years sooner, changes are pretty good he would have been fried or toasted. Anyway, in my opinion, for what it is worth, this was a good thing and certainly could, in my mind, be considered intellectual progress weather or not you agree with him.

Was it worth the time I took to read this work? From my point of view and considering my needs; yes! Will I read the rest of the volumes? Well, I will attempt, although at my age and considering my reading speed, it is quite problematic as to weather or not I will finish them.

NOTE: It should be noted that this entire work...all six volumes, can be downloaded to your Kindle for free. This is a good thing. I have not done this yet as I have the printed versions here, but I did take a brief look on a friend's Kindle. These down loads are good, but the quality is not the best and there are a few pages missing here and there...but hey, they are free so you cannot complain too much, you know. I have so many books downloaded in my little reading machine I need to do some catch-up before I continue.

Don Blankenship
The Ozarks

This "publisher's" supposed "commitment to the preservation of printed works"--which in the present case involves issuing a photographic reproduction of an 1845(?) edition of a work in the public domain-- would appear to be nothing more than a money-making gimmick. Envision a text whose early sections are marred by frequent underlining, which is then poorly scanned. Add the unforgiveable fact that not just any pages are entirely missing, but very key pages, and you'll have an idea what this volume offers. Appalling that Amazon or any "reputable" bookseller would offer such trash. Do yourself a favor an look at other editions!