The German historian Leopold von Ranke (1795-1886) is considered a founder of modern source-based history, introducing ideas such as reliance on primary sources, emphasis on narrative history and international perspectives. (His works on the history of England and the on papacy are also reissued in this series.) While historiography and empiricism, as practised by Ranke, are now considered outdated, his emphasis on primary sources and the use of quotations to illustrate arguments remains hugely influential. First published in German in 1829, this work was based on eye-witness accounts of the Serbian Uprising of 1804, and was one of the first modern works on the Balkan nation. The early chapters review the history of the Serbs from the ninth century CE, to contextualise the chapters on the sixteenth-century Ottoman conquest and subsequent rule. This translation, published in 1847, is based on the second German edition of 1844.
