The Study Of Edward Gibbon's Historical Thinking

For the study of Edward Gibbon's masterpiece "Decline and fall of the Roman Empire",this paper attempts to clarify the main theory and its feature about the historical thinking of Edward Gibbon . From his thinking about the reason for religious,politics and barbarian invasion which led to the decline of the Roman Empire to explore the theoretical form of his historical thinking .Furthermore,of all the modern rational thoughts in west, his thought is so typical that it is helpful for us to understand rational general picture.His historical thinking is not only a certain significance, but also there are some limitations, such as his neglection for the description of economic factors in his writing, and his negation for the history of the Middle Ages and so on. These are all unilateral.