Freeman, Edward

Eduard Freeman ( Eng. Freeman ; 1823-1892) is a famous English historian.

He was a professor of modern history at Oxford University.

His main works are: “History of the Norman conquest of England, its causes and its results” (1867–79); “Growth of English constitution” (1872; there is a Russian translation); “General sketch of European history” (1872, id.); Comparative politics (1873, id.); “The Ottoman power in Europe, its nature, its growth a nd its decline” (1877); “The historical geography of Europe” (1881; there is a Russian translation); "The reign of William Rufus and the accession of Henri I" (1882); “Methods of historical study” (1886, id); “Chief periods of European history” (1887, id.); “The hi story of Sicily” (1891–94).

Freeman's works reveal great industriousness and a great variety of scholarly interest. Their common virtue is the extraordinary clarity of presentation, the ability to skillfully group facts and guiding ideas. This explains the popularity of Freeman. And as an analyst, and as a theorist, Freeman did not pave new ways, but everything he wrote was sensible and exciting. These properties are not so much a scientist as a professor. Freeman was first and foremost a professor. At the head of his major research is The History of the Norman Conquest, with the adjoining History of William the Red . Here, for the first time, the hobbies and mistakes of O. Thierry were proved with complete clarity and a reliable story based on the primary sources was given. The “historical geography of Europe” is the first and very successful experience of expounding all the major territorial changes that have taken place in Europe, from antiquity to the modern era. The “General Outline of the History of Europe” and “The Main Periods of European History” are brief overviews of the political history of Europe made by the master. "The development of the English constitution" - perhaps the best of all the works of Freeman. In a small book, he succinctly and clearly depicted the process of political development of the English people. A complement to all these works are his lectures on study and history, in which he outlines the principles of historical criticism in an accessible form.

Freeman's views on history are characterized by the definition: "History is the science of man as a political being." He studies the facts of European history mainly from a political point of view. Some one-sidedness obtained in this way is redeemed by the merits of his works; but one-sidedness is not the only drawback of Freeman as a historian. Freeman is a keen writer; in his native antiquity he finds so many faces and facts that cause his delight that sometimes he has to run through entire pages of historical lyrics. He often has, therefore, serious misunderstandings; he sometimes often does little to cope with sources and reports facts that are not directly attested to in them. In this regard, he is very far from the German historical school, brought up on the Ranke testament , with which he has a unilateral political understanding of the historical process. Freeman's Comparative Politics stands out: he used the method developed by Maine before him and gave good experience in applying the comparative method to the realm of historical facts.