8 November

Please visit our Book Bulletin 2019 crowdfunding project at CrowdPatch to buy recommendations for our Winter 2019 catalogue and to volunteer your skills, experience and contacts. All funds raised will support not-for-profit Jolabokaflod CIC’s forthcoming programme of events.

The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire
Edward Gibbon
(UK: Everyman’s Library, @EverymansLib, 1993-94; USA: Everyman’s Library, @EverymansLib, 1993-94)

Gibbon’s masterpiece, which narrates the history of the Roman Empire from the 2nd century AD to its collapse in the west in the 5th century and in the east in the 15th century, is widely considered the greatest work of history ever written. The year of reissue by Everyman’s Library (1994) was the bicentenary of Gibbon’s death, which was widely noticed in the press; even after 200 years his book is still an authoritative work on Roman history. What is more, it remains wonderfully readable: witty, elegant and intriguing, full of the author’s own personality. The six-volume Everyman edition – the only complete one now available – prints the entire text of the book with all Gibbon’s own notes, later editorial commentaries, maps, tables, descriptive tables of contents, indices, appendices and two magisterial essays on the author and his work by Hugh Trevor-Roper. The series is also available as one long ebook.

Recommended by:
The Most Revd Justin Welby, Archbishop of Canterbury | Archbishop’s website: home page

Justin Welby is the 105th Archbishop of Canterbury and, as such, he is the most senior bishop in the Church of England and a politician by virtue of his seat in the House of Lords. Welby was the vicar of Southam, Warwickshire, and most recently was the Bishop of Durham, serving for just over a year. As Archbishop of Canterbury, he is the Primate of All England and the head Primus inter pares of the worldwide Anglican Communion.

Welby was educated at the University of Cambridge where he studied history and law. Later in life, he received an ordination at St John’s College, Durham. After several parochial appointments he became the Dean of Liverpool in 2007 and the Bishop of Durham in 2011.

Welby’s theology is reported as representing the evangelical tradition within Anglicanism. Having worked as a senior executive in the oil industry before his ordination, some of his publications explore the relationship between finance, business and religion and, as a member of the House of Lords, he sat on the panel of the Parliamentary Commission on Banking Standards (2012-13).

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Please visit our Book Bulletin 2019 crowdfunding project at CrowdPatch to buy recommendations for our Winter 2019 catalogue and to volunteer your skills, experience and contacts. All funds raised will support not-for-profit Jolabokaflod CIC’s forthcoming programme of events.

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