- Paperback: 256 pages
- Publisher: Faber and Faber; New edition edition (7 April 2003)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0571196012
- ISBN-13: 978-0571196012
- Product Dimensions: 19.2 x 12.6 x 1.8 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (1 customer review)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 605,530 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Description
Product Description
Many books offer footnotes to history; until now, however, no one has dedicated an entire book to the history of the footnote. But the footnote matters, as Anthony Grafton shows in this lively and erudite study, for it offers empirical support for the stories we live by. Its own story is neither so simple nor so reliable as historians like to believe. It is the creation of a varied and talented group, one that includes almost as many philosophers as historians, and numbers among its celebrated practitioners Swift, Pope and Gibbon, Rank, Hume and Hegel.
At a time when popular historians are busily abandoning footnotes and novelists are as eagerly acquiring them, The Footnote shines new light on many dark recesses of literary and historical scholarship, and on the foibles and deviousness of scholars through the ages.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
The immense detail that Anthony Grafton goes into can be very off-putting for the casual reader, who is likely to be slowed down by his constant use of academic terminology. Grafton's method of storytelling is also slightly confused. It leaps around from example to example, covering centuries in a few lines without any clear indication of his argumentative route. It takes a while for Grafton to stop discussing the history of primary source research and to start analysing footnotes.
However, the points he raises are hugely informative. His examples from the entire spectrum of historical study do give the book a very good depth. He focuses on a few key names where necessary, like Ranke and Gibbon, to show the contributions of people who have had an enormous affect on the history of the footnote. The book does give a very good insight into the history of the footnote.
However, the points he raises are hugely informative. His examples from the entire spectrum of historical study do give the book a very good depth. He focuses on a few key names where necessary, like Ranke and Gibbon, to show the contributions of people who have had an enormous affect on the history of the footnote. The book does give a very good insight into the history of the footnote.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
1 review
7 of 7 people found the following review helpful
Footnotes Can Be Fun!
5 Sep 2007
Format:Paperback
Anthony Grafton's short history of this often-irritating contrivance is a delightful defense of the footnotes importance. In an age that has become increasingly lazy in intellectual matters, and the call of some for the removal of all such arcana, Professor Grafton makes us deeply aware of the footnotes place in the study of history, and its continued importance as a major implement in the historian's toolbox. Taking us first to the supposed birth of the footnote with the Enlightenment and the immortal Gibbon, he moves on to Ranke and "Scientific History", then backtracks to the Middle Ages and Renaissance to reveal its true origins. Any lover of the history of the book, or history in general, cannot fail to enjoy it.
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