Western Civilisation was in its pomp when Jacob Burckhardt delivered his<strong>Judgements on History and Historians</strong> European Empires spanned the globe... » 

Western Civilisation was in its pomp when Jacob Burckhardt delivered hisJudgements on History and Historians European Empires spanned the globe whilethe modern age was being forged in the nationalist revolutions of 1848. As atutor to the young Friedrich Nietzsche as well as one of the first historiansto take culture as his subject rather than the triumphs and travails of kingsand generals Burckhardt was at the vanguard of this modern sensibility.Ambitious in its scope ranging from the days of Ancient Egypt through theReformation to the time of Napoleon this is indeed a history of WesternCivilization written before two monstrous world wars threw such a conceptinto disrepute. «