Barbarism and Religion, Vol. 1: The Enlightenment of Edward Gibbon, 1737-1764.(Review) (book review)

American Political Science Review, June, 2000 by Fowler, Robert Booth

Barbarism and Religion, Vol. 1: The Enlightenment of Edward Gibbon, 1737-1764. By J. G. A. Pocock. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999. 323p. $49.95.

Barbarism and Religion, Vol. 2: Narratives of Civil Government. By J. G. A. Pocock. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999. 4l3p. $49.95. Two-volume set $90.00.

These two substantial volumes are part of J. G. A. Pocock's projected multivolume exploration of the thought of Edward Gibbon (1737-94), the still controversial author of the even longer Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (1776-88). Pocock devotes so much effort to Gibbon because he believes Gibbon was a "very great figure" (Vol. 2, 402), although exactly why he makes this judgment is not especially clear in this study.

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