CS Political/History Book Club, May 2013
Posted: Fri May 24, 2013 9:12 pm
Read quite a few books lately. One I'm on right now is Barbarians to Angels: The Dark Ages Reconsidered, by Peter Wells, a University of Minnesota history professor.
He contends that the "fall" or "collapse" of Rome was neither. In reality, it was a gradual fading away and, because of Rome's disappearance, the western world did not slide into a period of "darkness". Rather, there were hundreds of other city-states and nations that flourished culturally and economically around where the Roman Empire existed.
He says that the modern world believes Rome "collapsed" because there were so few records left to us and the ones that were left for us were unevenly influential. The single most popular book on the subject, The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire was written in the late 1700's and was assumed to be the final word....until modern archeology uncovered a different story. Two claws up from The Cap'n.
*******
Also recently finished The Decline and Fall of the Ottoman Empire, by Alan Palmer.
Exhaustive and thick, day-by-day account of what happened to the Ottoman Empire, The "Sick Man of Europe". Cliff notes: Eastern desert fvck Muslims could not manage their lives and constantly looked to the West for assistance and salvation until ultimate collapse during World War I. The Ottoman Empire was ruled by diseased killing machine fvckheads forever. Early roots of modern Islamic terrorism.
Only one claw up from The Cap'n due to very heavy, unnecessarily detailed reading. You can't wait to get to the end of the book just to stop reading about the palace murders, infanticide, fratricide and every other
"-cide" there is.
Whaddayu been reading, nig-nogs?
He contends that the "fall" or "collapse" of Rome was neither. In reality, it was a gradual fading away and, because of Rome's disappearance, the western world did not slide into a period of "darkness". Rather, there were hundreds of other city-states and nations that flourished culturally and economically around where the Roman Empire existed.
He says that the modern world believes Rome "collapsed" because there were so few records left to us and the ones that were left for us were unevenly influential. The single most popular book on the subject, The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire was written in the late 1700's and was assumed to be the final word....until modern archeology uncovered a different story. Two claws up from The Cap'n.
*******
Also recently finished The Decline and Fall of the Ottoman Empire, by Alan Palmer.
Exhaustive and thick, day-by-day account of what happened to the Ottoman Empire, The "Sick Man of Europe". Cliff notes: Eastern desert fvck Muslims could not manage their lives and constantly looked to the West for assistance and salvation until ultimate collapse during World War I. The Ottoman Empire was ruled by diseased killing machine fvckheads forever. Early roots of modern Islamic terrorism.
Only one claw up from The Cap'n due to very heavy, unnecessarily detailed reading. You can't wait to get to the end of the book just to stop reading about the palace murders, infanticide, fratricide and every other
"-cide" there is.
Whaddayu been reading, nig-nogs?
