6 v. Ed. by Oliphant Smeaton v. 1 (no. 434) rpt. 1928; v. 2 (no. 435) rpt. 1925; v. 3 (no. 436) rpt. 1926 ; v. 4 (no. 474) rpt. 1928; v. 5 (no. 475) rpt. 1928; v. 6 (no. 476) rpt. 1927 ( )

3 v.Vol. 2-3 ex-lib. Four-county library system, Binghamton, NY ( )

A big book, and one which will not stand being edited. the epigrams fall thickly, and the insights into general human behaviours and particularly of the Enlightenment frame of mind are very valuable. If you want training in the prose that the framers of the American Constitution worked in, it is a valuable and entertaining tool. I used the Everyman edition, for this entry because of the valuable notes, and the Great Books of the Western world has a great binding, though the notes are relegated to the end of the volume...an annoying habit for the footnote reader, thus the need of a sturdy binding. Oh, the actual matter of the work is the history of the end of the Western Empire in 476, and the continuing history of the Eastern Mediterranean basin until 1453. It is always worth reading. The publishing of the six volume original edition was protracted from 1776 to 1789. ( )

No I have not read the whole thing. About a quarter of it. It features spectacular English and wonderful irony. It is long, but not boring by any means. I learned more about how religion operates in human society than any other place.

Gibbon also understands the character of the other folk who created our history.

Astonishing accomplishment.

Winston Churchill was said to have committed Chapter 14 to memory all his life (the one about Christianity). ( )

Oh god this book is dense. For every page I read, 300 years pass and fifteen emperors die. A nice come-down if you're feeling particularly self-important and focused. ( )

Brutally inclined to an anti-Christian polemic. Presuppositions taint findings on Rome's fall.

I have not read more than the occasional passage from this, nor do I really expect to. It's a big chunk of book, though, and it's an old enough edition that it smells lovely.