Universal History: The Oldest Historical Group of Nations and the Greeks

‘No apology can be needed for introducing to English readers the latest work of Leopold von Ranke’, states the editor’s preface to this English translation, first published in 1884. Ranke (1795-1886) is well known for pioneering the modern historical method which advocates empiricism, rather than a focus on the philosophy of history. Emphasising the importance of presenting history exactly as the surviving evidence, both documentary and archaeological, reveals it to have happened, Ranke asserted that different eras need to be understood in their own contexts rather than in relation to each other. Though it is limited to the Mediterranean and the Middle East, this work takes a broad overview of ‘the oldest historical group of nations and the Greeks’, beginning with ancient Egypt and concluding with Alexander the Great and his immediate successors. Other works by Ranke in English translation are also reissued in the Cambridge Library Collection.