Edward Gibbon - The Modern Library Essential World History 4-Book Bundle: The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (Abridged); Montcalm and Wolfe; History of the Conquest of Mexico; The Naval War of 1812

The Modern Library Essential World History

The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (Abridged)

By Edward Gibbon

Montcalm and Wolfe

By Francis Parkman

History of the Conquest of Mexico

By William H. Prescott

The Naval War of 1812

By Theodore Roosevelt

The Modern Library

A Modern Library eBook Edition

Abridgment, notes, and preface for The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire by Edward Gibbon copyright 2003 by Random House, Inc.
Biographical note for Montcalm and Wolfe copyright 1999 by Random House, Inc.
Series Introduction for Montcalm and Wolfe copyright 1999 by Caleb Carr
Introduction for Montcalm and Wolfe copyright 1999 by John Keegan
Biographical note for History of the Conquest of Mexico copyright 1998 by Random House, Inc.
Biographical note for The Naval War of 1812 copyright 1996 by Random House, Inc.
Series Introduction for The Naval War of 1812 copyright 1999 by Caleb Carr
Introduction for The Naval War of 1812 copyright 1999 by John Allen Gable.

All Rights Reserved.

Published in the United States by Modern Library, an imprint of The Random House Publishing Group, a division of Random House, Inc., New York.

Modern Library and the Torchbearer design are registered trademarks of Random House, Inc.

Grateful acknowledgment is made to HarperCollins Publishers, Inc., for the permission to reprint The Intimacy of Gibbons Decline and Fall, chapter 4 from Hidden History by Daniel J. Boorstin. Copyright 1987 by Daniel J. Boorstin. Reprinted by permission of HarperCollins Publishers, Inc.

The works contained in this omnibus were each published separately by Modern Library, an imprint of The Random House Publishing Group, a division of Random House, Inc., in 2003, 1999, 1998, and 1999.

Cover design: Anna Bauer

Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire
The Modern Library
All rights reserved.
Copyright 2003 by Random House, Inc.
eISBN: 978-0-307-41976-7

Montcalm and Wolfe
The Modern Library
All rights reserved.
Copyright 1999 by Random House, Inc.
eISBN: 978-0-679-64173-5

History of the Conquest of Mexico
The Modern Library
All rights reserved.
Copyright 1998 by Random House, Inc.
eISBN: 978-0-679-64176-6

Naval War of 1812
The Modern Library
All rights reserved.
Copyright 1996 by Random House, Inc.
eISBN: 978-0-679-64173-5

The Modern Library Essential Great History: 4-Book Bundle
The Modern Library
All rights reserved.
Copyright 2012 by Random House, Inc.
No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.
www.modernlibrary.com
eISBN: 978-0-679-64569-6
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2003 Modern Library Paperback Edition

Abridgment, notes, and preface copyright 2003 by Random House, Inc.

All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. Published in the United States by Modern Library, an imprint of The Random House Publishing Group, a division of Random House, Inc., New York, and simultaneously in Canada by Random House of Canada Limited, Toronto.

M ODERN L IBRARY and the T ORCHBEARER Design are registered trademarks of Random House, Inc.

Grateful acknowledgment is made to HarperCollins Publishers, Inc., for permission to reprint The Intimacy of Gibbons Decline and Fall, chapter 4 from Hidden History by Daniel J. Boorstin.
Copyright 1987 by Daniel J. Boorstin.
Reprinted by permission of HarperCollins Publishers, Inc.

LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGING-IN-PUBLICATION DATA
Gibbon, Edward, 17371794.
[History of the decline and fall of the Roman empire]
The decline and fall of the Roman empire / Edward Gibbon; edited, abridged, and with a critical foreword by Hans-Friedrich Mueller; introduction by Daniel J. Boorstin.
p. cm.
eISBN: 978-0-307-41976-7
1. RomeHistoryEmpire, 30 B.C .476 A.D . 2. Byzantine EmpireHistory.
I. Mueller, Hans-Friedrich, 1959 II. Title.

DG311 .G5 2003

937.06dc21 2002032585

Modern Library website address: www.modernlibrary.com

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FILIVS

I can understand why Will Murphy, senior editor at Random House, was eager to produce a new abridgment of Edward Gibbons Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire for the Modern Library Paperback Classics series. Gibbons work has much to tell us, if only we can find the time. Why Will should have chosen me to serve as the editor who would produce this new abridgment remains obscure, but it has never been my custom to inquire too closely into the gifts of fortune. I offer rather my sincerest thanks. And my gratitude to Will goes beyond that initial choice. Will Murphy combines professionalism and congeniality in the highest degree; it has been another stroke of good fortune to work with him, and, again, I offer my heartfelt thanks. Others at Random House too deserve grateful mention: Vincent La Scala worked on the text with careful ingenuity. Evan Camfield, who served as copy editor, performed an enormous labor with grace and wit, rescuing the abridged text from numerous infelicities and corruptions. I thank my colleagues in the Department of Classics at the University of Florida for their encouragement, advice, and unstinting support. I do not know whether my wife, Terri, or my daughters, Sarah, Anna, Paula, and Laura, will forgive me for stealing away from them so often in order to spend so many hours with another man, but I do hope that they may someday find in these pages a partial compensation as well as a record of my conduct. In appreciation for all that they have done, I gratefully dedicate this edition to my parents, Hans O. and Dorothy C. Mueller.

M APS

I LLUSTRATIONS
by Giovanni Battista Piranesi

There are many reasons to admire Edward Gibbons History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. Since it was first published in several volumes between 1776 and 1788, few books of history have been so widely or so indiscriminately praised. His twentieth-century editor, historian J. B. Bury, calls him one of those few writers who hold as high a place in the history of literature as in the roll of great historians. Most students of history and of literature would agree.

Praise of Gibbon (17371794) has become especially fashionable with the rise of liberal and Marxist prejudices against religion. And as pessimism has become increasingly fashionable about the future of our Western civilization, the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire has become a handy guide to the sources of decay in other empires and civilizations. I will not enter the debate over the adequacy of Gibbons explanations of the fall of Rome. Nor will I explore the easyor uneasyanalogies between the career of the ancient Roman empire and that of our modern Western civilization.