History, empire, and Islam
History, empire, and Islam
This book offers the first comprehensive treatment of the historian and public moralist E. A. Freeman since the publication of W. R. W. Stephensâ Life and Letters of Edward A. Freeman (1895). While Freeman is often viewed by modern scholars as a pan...
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This book offers the first comprehensive treatment of the historian and public moralist E. A. Freeman since the publication of W. R. W. Stephensâ Life and Letters of Edward A. Freeman (1895). While Freeman is often viewed by modern scholars as a panegyrist to English progress and a proponent of Aryan racial theory, this study suggests that his world-view was more complicated than it appears. Revisiting Freemanâs most important historical works, this book positions Thomas Arnold as a significant influence on Freemanâs view of world-historical development. Conceptualising the past as cyclical rather than unilinear, and defining race in terms of culture, rather than biology, Freemanâs narratives were pervaded by anxieties about recapitulation. Ultimately, this study shows that Freemanâs scheme of universal history was based on the idea of conflict between Euro-Christendom and the Judeo-Islamic Orient, and this shaped his engagement with contemporary issues.
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