Reviews for History of France, from the Earliest Times to Mdcccxlviii, by the Revised. James White, Auth...

The average rating for History of France, from the Earliest Times to Mdcccxlviii, by the Revised. James White, Auth... based on 2 reviews is 4 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2020-07-24 00:00:00 Jesus Diaz Hume doesn’t relate to this subject matter as to the same degree for which he did in the previous three volumes. He covers his topics remotely and distantly and is convinced that women leaders aren’t really up to the task and that Bloody Mary, Mary Queen of Scots and Elizabeth I to Hume aren’t as interesting as say the Earl of Essex who he gives credit for doing the Queens bidding rather than credit the Queen herself. Hume will give back-handed compliments to Elizabeth I while praising her vaguely for her successes by giving more credit for the time period than for the reigning monarch herself. It’s fascinating when he sneaks a comment or two about America and what it means to the history of England during this period under consideration through a 1760ish perspective and alludes obliquely to how it would be absurd for the colonies to be anything but part of England. The description for volume V says it starts with James I, but my version of Volume IV ended with James I. There’s a religious chaos unfolding on the continent and Hume mostly only hints at it, and the English puritans always seem to be up to no good and are as bad or using Hume’s nomenclature worse than the papist and the Romanist, everyone knows or should after having read Hume that the Protestants are the only non-superstitious true religion and probably the only really true religion the world has ever known. Hume does acknowledge Elizabeth and praises her circumspectly at times but his heart doesn’t seem to be in it and Bloody Mary just seemed to let her emotions and her womanly needs get the best of her, and Mary Queen of Scots was really no better and would let her womanhood subvert her from the wiser path. Moreover, he really didn’t seem to like James I that much either, and I get a feeling that he just wasn’t manly enough for Hume. Where’s John Wayne when you need him? (The Hollywood Duke allusion is mostly in reference to the thesis from the book Jesus and John Wayne). There’s a reason why Thomas Jefferson despised this history by Hume. It’s becoming obvious in this volume, Volume IV. Hume takes it as a given that the role of tradition, culture and the divine rights of rulers such that everything else under consideration gets its definition from the sovereign who rules by the consent of the people who only get their legitimacy from the sovereign is antithetical to the America spirit of constitutional democratic representative government in the image of Jefferson. Hume only hints indirectly at why England is not becoming like an authoritative France or the somewhat chaotic path of Germany with its system of Barons who are separate but equal and at best have a first among equals and which will be decimated in the next 30 years during the 30 Year War (1618-1639). England will have its Sir Frances Bacon laying down the foundations for science and the world will only ever know one Sir Isaac Newton and Hume is not shy when he mentions that and what will soon come to be, and how literature is starting to rise within England beyond the mimesis of its past time period. I would say unequivocally that Hume was not a theist from Hume’s other writings, while this history would almost certainly say differently the way he presents his arguments run counter to my unequivocal statement. I give this volume one star less than the others because he doesn’t seem to give the women their proper place and he has removed himself from his subject matter in his writing by making the history not part of who he is as he did in the previous three volumes. England in this time period is coming into its own and Hume knows that and shares that with his reader but he’s lost a little bit of his focus and reverence for his subject matter in this volume.

Review # 2 was written on 2020-10-13 00:00:00 Alansa Birnadr This Volume gives a graphic rendition of the formation of some of today's greatest nations of Europe. It's with great surprise that I discovered that the German nation wasn't extant as at mid 16th century. Other than France, Spain, and England, Europe was just a jungle of tiny principalities owned by a few families. Amazing!