Author : John Clark Ridpath
Publisher : Forgotten Books
ISBN 13 : 9781330048566
Total Pages : 380 pages
Book Rating : 4.0/5 (485 download)
Book Synopsis Ridpath's History of the World, Vol. 5 of 9 by : John Clark Ridpath
Download or read book Ridpath's History of the World, Vol. 5 of 9 written by John Clark Ridpath and published by Forgotten Books. This book was released on 2015-06-12 with total page 380 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Excerpt from Ridpath's History of the World, Vol. 5 of 9 In pursuance of the general plan of the present work, I have now arrived at a break in the narrative which may well suggest the beginning of a new Volume. We here find ourselves in the dawu of the History of Modern Kunipe. (niizot has with great propriety designated the Crusades as the first European event. By this is meant that the Holy Wars were the first event subsequent to the Dark Ages, in which the several countries of Europe, considered as a whole, joined their forces in a common cause under the inifluence of common sentiments and passions. When the crusading fever first appeared, Europe was, as we have seen, thoroughly broken up. The various States were segregated an lhostile. There was uo common opinion, no fact which might properly be called European. But at the close of the epoch, Modern Europe had been born. Chaos had brought -forth. The political results of the tremendous agitation were the germs of iustitutions destined under the law of evolution and historical growth to expand and become permanent in the States and kingdoms of the present day. It is at this point of view that we now take our stand. I shall hope to continue the narrative in the same manner as that already employed in the two preceding volumes. Albeit, the matter is now much changed from the character which it bore in the Classical Ages, and even more changed from the character which it bore in the Epochs of Darkness. In historical narrative every such change in subject-matter must needs be reflected to a certain extent in the style and treatment. The thought, when fixed intently on any event, takes by sympathy much of the form, and someithi Tgof the substance, of the thing considered. -Since a Preface is largely personal, it may lie appropriate tlmt I should re(T iif;aMi Uthe part which historical writings are perlormin); in the literature of our age, and parlicniarly in the literature of our own country. The people of the United States hold a relation to the general history of mankind entirely singular and unique. No other people in ancient or in modern times have stool in so important an attitude with respect to civilization and the course of events. We have here in our American arena a larger and freer field of political and civil action than has ever been known hitherto among the nations. The civil and social life of the American people is set forth on a grander scale and with more striking phenomena than have ever been witnessed in other countries. The life of mankind associated, as distinguished from the life of man individual, is a larger fact in the United States than among any other people who have flourished since the times of the Grecian Democracies. All of these circumstances and conditions have conspired to produce in the American mind and in American life a better ground for historical study for the knowledge of the past and its application to the present than could be discovered in the situation and attainment of any other nation. Among many peoples, viewed with respect to their social and political condition, it might well be said that history, as a branch of learning, should be remanded to a subordinate and unimportant place, or altogether omitted from the subjects of common inquiry. The lessons which the historians have with so much pains and labor deduced from the affairs of men in one age, and set forth for the instruction of men in another age, must needs be wasted on those nations that have not yet emerged from the Medivæl condition and reached political autonomy. Doubtless among peoples of this kind a few minds of superior force and more favorably developed may find profit from the pursuit and application of historical teacher. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com
