The Idea of Progress. An Inquiry into Its Origin and Growth - Softcover

Bury, J B

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1406801089 ISBN 13: 9781406801088

Publisher: Echo Library, 2006

Synopsis

John Bagnell Bury (1861-1927) was an Irish historian, classical scholar and philologist. He was Erasmus Smith's Professor of Modern History at Trinity College, Dublin from 1893-1902 before being Regis Professor of Modern History at Cambridge University from 1902 until his death. Bury's writings, on subjects ranging from ancient Greece to the 19th century papacy, are at once scholarly and accessible to the layman. His two works on the philosophy of history, A History of Freedom of Thought (1913) and The Idea of Progress: An Inquiry into its Origin and Growth (1920), elucidated the Victorian ideals of progress and rationality which undergirded his more specific histories. Bury's career shows his evolving thought process and his consideration of the discipline of history as a 'science' and not a branch of 'literature'.

About this title

From the Back Cover

The notion that human civilization is progressing, is naturally moving from a more primitive state to a more evolved one, seems so obvious to us that it bears reminding that this was not always true: the concept did not exist before the Enlightenment. In fact, as renowned historian J.B. Bury explains in this classic work, first published in 1920, the idea of progress was antithetical to the thinking of the ancients, who saw history as an unstoppable decline from a previous Golden Age. How did we shift from such pessimism to the current assumption, and how has it altered human civilization? Drawing on the writings of such thinkers from Malthus and Descartes to Darwin and Marx--and many others--Bury explores how all fields of human thought from philosophy to physics have been changed by the idea of progress. British historian JOHN BAGNELL BURY (1861-1927) was professor of modern history at Cambridge. His writings, known for a readability combined with a scholarly depth, include History of the Later Roman Empire (1889), History of Greece (1900), and A History of Freedom of Thought (1913).

Edition details

• Publisher: Echo Library
• Publication date: 2006
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1406801089
• ISBN 13: 9781406801088
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 200