HISTORIES OF ROME AND ITALY

[Der Lange]

This probably should be a short-lived topic. It's an effort to track down two particular histories of Italy, while at the same time building a nice little bibliography of histories of Italy and Rome.

Just ran an Amazon search in preparation for making this post. There surely are some interesting variations on Roman history in particular. It should be quite enlightening to get some informed comments on different works.

The post is stimulated by a wish to re-locate two histories of Italy, and one of later Rome, that I read a LONG time ago (no less than 15 years and probably longer). OF COURSE I didn't keep any notes about these books.

Memory tells me that the Italian histories were crafted by a professor named Jack Tarr - and that is nearly certainly erroneous. One was simply titled, "A Concise History of Italy," while the other was essentially the same book with all the editorial cuts restored. The author's organizing thesis was that Italian history had been greatly shaped after the fall of the Roman Empire by the consistent attempt ever after to re-create that empire. It was and is an interesting idea when applied to broad motivations of the Goths, the Holy Roman Empire, the Houses of Bourbon and Hapsburg, and so forth. And, of course, consider how the title of the Roman Emperors, "Caesar," survived in more modern times in the now-disused titles of two monarchs, the Tsar of All the Russias, and the Kaiser of Germany.

(Uh oh. Maybe this won't be a short-lived thread after all. That prior paragraph is like waving a red flag in front of Minimalist!)

The third book was named, I seem to recall, "The Last 100 Years of Rome." Maybe not - it doesn't show in an Amazon search, anyhow.

It was a short but action-packed little thriller and a pretty decent piece of historiography.

So, Watson - the game is afoot!

[Minimalist]

You remind me of the old comment about the Holy Roman Empire which was neither Holy, Roman, nor an Empire.

[Der Lange]

C'MON, GUYS AND GALS, SURELY ONE OF YOU HAS A CLUE!

HOPE SO!

[Minimalist]

A Concise History of Italy (Cambridge Concise Histories) (Paperback)
by Christopher Duggan

Found this at Amazon but it could be a coincidence of naming.

[stan]

C'MON, GUYS AND GALS

Youve gotta lotta nerve, after being AWOL for so long!