History, Science and the art of writing

Of late I have been reading two books - "The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire" by Edward Gibbons and "Guns, Germs and Steel" by Jared Diamond. The first book is arguably one of the greatest work of the "What" of history. Written by Edward Gibbons, this is one absorbing book to read - sarcastic, ironic and simultaneously entertaining and immensely knowledgeable.

The second one is an eye opening and supremely illuminating treatise on the "Why" of history (for example why did Francisco Pizarro beat the Inca king Atahuallpa at Cajamarca and not Atahuallpa beating the Spanish king Charles I at Madrid). This is a supremely interesting read which will answer questions which you never thought you had.

The thing about the two books is that both have made history an extremely interesting subject. Gibbon converts history of Rome into an english language story like say any work by James Michener. He takes the novelists' approach to history. Diamond on the other hand converts history of the world into a scientific treatise not one of the greek letter scientific papers but more in the genre of Richard Dawkins. He presents the problem, the possible solutions, presents the evidence to support his preferred solution and raises questions on other solutions.

The other thing about these two books is the background of the authors. Gibbons is not a historian and neither is Diamond. For that matter the greatests of treatises on history like Carlyle (on the French Revolution) were written by non historians.

So am I hinting that history, like war and generals, is too serious a business to be left to the historians? Or is history readable only when it is woven into a thrilling narrative or into a hypothesis evidence and explanation set up? Or am I trying to broach the issue that like Chomsky on language, only outsiders seem to do path breaking work in any field.

I actually don't know what I am raising, but what think is true is that for any subject to be widely followed, read and appreciated a little of the three needs to be done - get rid of the experts who would not be able to simplify the message, weave it into a interesting narrative and lastly expertise in other areas needs to be tapped.