A History of the Roman World, 753 to 146 BC

[DecimusCaesar]

An excellent review Ursus!

 

I'll be keeping an eye out for this book in the future.

 

I'd have to agree that many early 20th century books on Rome are much easier to read, than some academic modern fare. I think one of the main reasons for this is that modern historians seem to believe that history and historiography are equals. That's why some modern books are much more difficult to read. The modern historians sometimes break their narrative and go off on a tangent, for instance comparing the ideas of one academic against an other. These comparisons would be best suited for footnotes rather than the main text - I think that John Julius Norwich does this succesfully.

 

I was reading a 1914 book on Republican Rome recently and I realise that early 20th Century authors tend not to do this. Instead they concentrate on the main drive of the historical developments, while the analysis is left at the Appendix at the end of the book. This makes them much easier to read, as I'm not being interrupted by several arguments about 'The Pyrrhic Wars' before I've even had a chance to form a

narrative of the war in my mind.