Download or read book Barbarism and Religion: Volume 4, Barbarians, Savages and Empires written by J. G. A. Pocock and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2005-10-27 with total page 388 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This fourth volume in John Pocock's great sequence on Barbarism and Religion focuses on the idea of barbarism. Barbarism was central to the history of western historiography, to the history of the enlightenment, and to Edward Gibbon himself. As a concept it was deeply problematic to enlightened historians seeking to understand their own civil societies in the light of exposure to newly-discovered civilizations hitherto beyond the reach of history. The troubled relationship between philosophy and history is addressed directly in this fourth volume.