History: William Hickling Prescott

History: William Hickling Prescott

Introduction

This essay seeks to analyze the career of a major historian in the American history. For the purpose of this essay, we chose to elaborate, analyze and evaluate the life and career of William Hickling Prescott (1796-1859), who was one of the most profoundly philosophical historians in the American history. His writings and endeavors are a source of inspiration and insight into the glorious American history. His life is full of struggle that appeared so synonymous with the History of America, where the Americans fought for different objectives and rights. He was engaged in ten years of assiduous labor that led to the popularity of his style and precision. It was his work by the name “History of Ferdinand and Isabella” that took him to the heights of popularity and fame, followed by other such thought-provoking and invoking subjects in his career. This essay will look into the life and career of William Hickling Prescott in a closely-focused manner, evaluating his struggles and contributions as a historian. The essay will discuss his works comprehensively, to see how his life made an impact upon the history of the United States. If historio-graphically, his work is now seen as outdated, the literary qualities of his works are always welcomed.

Discussion

William Prescott came from a prominent family- Prescott was a junior lawyer and his wife was Catherine Greene Hickling. His paternal grandfather served as a colonel in the War of American Independence. While still young, he suffered a serious injury in one eye because of a crust of bread thrown with force while attending Harvard, where he graduated in law in 1814. Made after an extensive tour of Europe (England, France and Italy, from April 1816 to July 1817), but the injury did not worsen but not allowed to read only but a few hours a day and spread to the other eye, despite to which she decided to devote himself to history, since his family had sufficient means to pay who would read aloud because of it and excellent sound memory (up to sixty pages could remember to read the letter), could write his early work. A review of Byron's letters to Pope in 1821 was his first contribution to the North American Review, which subsided after long years of their research results, which by then French literature ranging from the Elizabethan drama, English ballads and Italian literature. He began a passion for the Hispanics under the friendship began to grow with the Harvard professor and Hispanist George Ticknor , who later became his biographer (The Life of William Prescott, Boston, 1864, revised 1875), and decided specialize in the history of Spain and Spanish America. On May 4, 1820 married Susan Amory. Although his view was weakened because of the stresses to which the submitted, the incident did not cease its work. He suffered a stroke in 1858 and died the following year, leaving unfinished his History of Philip II. All these works were translated into ...