The History of England in Three Volumes, Vol. I., Part D.

Hume, David, 1711-1776Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

Rating 4.0

Word count: 1.4M words
Chapters: 143

Summary

Project Gutenberg was the first provider of free electronic books, or eBooks. Michael Hart, founder of Project Gutenberg, invented eBooks in 1971, and his memory continues to inspire the creation of eBooks and related technologies today. The History of England in Three Volumes, Vol. I., Part D. by David Hume. Author: Hume, David, 1711-1776. Language: English. Class: DA: History: General and Eastern Hemisphere: Great Britain, Ireland, Central Europe. Release Date: Sep 8, 2006.

Editor's review

This is Part D of Volume I of Hume's three-volume History of England, a separately issued electronic text of a public-domain historical classic. Hume's narrative is known for its fluent prose and vivid character portrayals; this part continues his survey of British political institutions and major events, and serves as a sample for understanding eighteenth-century historiography and the tradition of English historical narrative. The electronic edition is released by Project Gutenberg, making it easy to search and excerpt, but the part-by-part arrangement makes it heavily dependent on context, so reading it alone can easily lose the thread. It is better treated as a source-oriented historical reading than as an introductory general history: first read the preceding and following parts of the same volume to establish a chronological framework, then return to this part for close reading, and compare it with modern works on English history—this allows both an appreciation of the classical historian's judgments and a recognition of his era's limitations.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Readers with a basic grounding in English history who want to understand classical historical narrative
Students of literature and history studying Hume's thought or eighteenth-century historical writing
Enthusiasts of public-domain classics who are used to search-based reading of electronic texts

Not a good fit for

Complete beginners with no exposure to English history who need a systematic introduction
Readers seeking a contemporary academic general history and the latest research conclusions
Casual readers unaccustomed to English originals and classical long sentences

Reading tips

First browse the tables of contents of other parts in the same volume to determine this part's place on the timeline before reading closely.
Before each chapter, list events and figures on paper; afterward, review whether they form a causal chain.
Compare the relevant chapters of a modern English history textbook and note Hume's choices and omissions.
When encountering long sentences, first identify the main figures and events, then return to the modifying clauses.

About the publisher

Project Gutenberg United States · Founded in 1971

Project Gutenberg is a digital publishing project focused on public-domain ebooks. Its publishing direction centers on classic literary works whose copyright has expired, covering genres such as poetry, drama, fiction, and epic. Representative books include Lyrical Ballads by Wordsworth and Coleridge, Proust's Du côté de chez Swann, Shakespeare's Macbeth and The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Homer's The Iliad, Dante's La Divina Comèdia: Purgatòri, Cervantes's The History of Don Quixote, Volume 2, and Grahame's The Wind in the Willows. Its author resources consist mainly of classic Western writers such as Wordsworth, Proust, Shakespeare, Homer, Dante, Cervantes, Grahame, and Tolstoy. Its publishing feature is the provision of freely accessible ebooks in EPUB and Kindle formats; it is not a traditional publisher, and publicly available information is limited.

FAQ

Can this book serve alone as an introduction to English history?

Not really. It is one part of Volume I of a three-volume work, with obvious dependence on preceding and following text, and Hume's narrative carries eighteenth-century historical views and style. Readers without a basic chronological framework can easily find it fragmented. It is advisable to first read a modern general history of England as a foundation, then use this as supplementary and comparative material.

What should be noted when reading the electronic edition?

The Gutenberg edition is a public-domain electronic text, laid out mainly as plain text, with chapter continuity dependent on the part divisions. When reading, it is best to have other parts of the same volume open at the same time for easy cross-checking of context; you can also use the search function to locate names and events, but be mindful of spelling differences to avoid missing results.

This site is an index: you start “Search all sources” in your browser, and the entries it lists all point to third-party sites; please judge their availability yourself.

About the author

Hume, David, 1711-1776 Author

David Hume (1711–1776) was a Scottish philosopher, historian and essayist whose thought had a profound influence on modern philosophy and historiography. The collection contains fifteen of his works, covering philosophy, religion, morality, knowledge and history. His representative works include A Treatise of Human Nature, which systematically examines understanding, the passions and morals and lays the foundation of his empiricist position; An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding and An Enquiry Concerning the Principles of Morals, which restate these ideas in a clearer style; Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion, which explores religious belief through reasoned debate; and The History of England, which represents another side of his historical writing. His prose is clear, cautious and sceptical, and he excels at turning abstract questions into readable discussion. Public information is limited, so biographical details are not developed here; this introduction focuses on the subjects and influence of his works.