'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...