History of Civilization in England

by Henry Thomas Buckle

Overview

English historian Henry Thomas Buckle (1821–62) was born into the family of a wealthy London merchant. A child of delicate health, and tutored privately at home, he never attended university. Nevertheless, it was clear that he was meant for intellectual pursuits and by the age of twenty he was a formidable chess player. With his love of books and reading, he set out on an ambitious plan to write a fourteen-volume history of civilisation, and at the same time to put historical research on a more scientific basis. The work would have included a greater number of countries, but due to his early death, only two volumes exist. Published in 1857, this is the first of two volumes that make up Buckle's unfinished history of civilisation. It focuses on England and France, and their intellectual, political, religious and social histories.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781023415569
Publisher:	Anson Street Press
Publication date:	03/29/2025
Pages:	444
Product dimensions:	6.14(w) x 9.21(h) x 0.90(d)

Table of Contents

1. Statement of the resources for investigating history, and proofs of the regularity of human actions. These actions are governed by mental and physical laws: therefore both sets of laws must be studied, and there can be no history without the natural sciences; 2. Influence exercised by physical laws over the organization of society, and over the character of individuals; 3. Examination of the method employed by metaphysicians for discovering mental laws; 4. Mental laws are either moral or intellectual. Comparison of moral and intellectual laws, and inquiry into the effect produced by each on the progress of society; 5. Inquiry into the influence exercised by religion, literature, and government; 6. Origin of history, and state of historical literature during the middle ages; 7. Outline of the history of the English intellectual from the middle of the sixteenth to the end of the eighteenth century; 8. Outline of the history of the French intellect from the middle of the sixteenth century to the accession to power of Louis XIV; 9. History of the protective spirit, and comparison of it in France and England; 10. The energy of the protective spirit in France explains the failure of the Fronde. Comparison between the Fronde and the contemporary English rebellion; 11. The protective spirit carried by Louis XIV into literature. Examination of the consequences of this alliance between the intellectual classes and the governing classes; 12. Death of Louis XIV. Reaction against the protective spirit, and preparations for the French Revolution; 13. State of historical literature in France from the end of the sixteenth to the end of the eighteenth century; 14. Proximate causes of the French Revolution after the middle of the eighteenth century.