Posts Tagged With: Constantinople

Would We See the End Coming?

“There is no certainty as scientific progress accelerates and leisure increases…[that] there is any corresponding advance in wisdom or morality, much less radical improvement in innate human nature.” – Victor Davis Hanson

In this absorbing book by historian Victor Davis Hanson, he looks to our past to remind us of the long-term consequences of war. We are also reminded of how power in the wrong hands can lead to the genocide of entire peoples. In an era where many world leaders have forgotten the ripple effects of war which endure for centuries, and treat it like another government program, perhaps we should look to our ancestors and the fates that befell them.

Categories: Ancient Sites, History | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Lost to the West

History is not dry or boring. No, it rivals the best novels. Take Lars Brownworth’s Lost to the West, the rest of the story of the Roman Empire.

The empire didn’t end with the collapse of Rome, but endured for centuries in the East, centered in Constantinople. That’s no idle fact for impressing your friends. Without the Byzantine Empire, the West would have become a very different place, and no doubt unrecognizable to this day.

In spite of all the setbacks brought by war, plague, and tyranny, the West emerged while much of the world receded. Perhaps we should pay closer attention to their stories. Where would we be if there hadn’t been constant restarts of civilization? Yet, in darkness, people still triumphed. There are lessons in both for us to learn.

lwest

Categories: History | Tags: , , , , | Leave a comment

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