Lost to the West: The Forgotten Byzantine Empire That Rescued Western Civilization

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Lost to the West: The Forgotten Byzantine Empire That Rescued Western Civilization

4.02 of 5 stars 4.02 · rating details · 732 ratings · 111 reviews

In AD 476 the Roman Empire fell–or rather, its western half did. Its eastern half, which would come to be known as the Byzantine Empire, would endure and often flourish for another eleven centuries. Though its capital would move to Constantinople, its citizens referred to themselves as Roman for the entire duration of the empire’s existence. Indeed, so did its neighbors, a...more In AD 476 the Roman Empire fell–or rather, its western half did. Its eastern half, which would come to be known as the Byzantine Empire, would endure and often flourish for another eleven centuries. Though its capital would move to Constantinople, its citizens referred to themselves as Roman for the entire duration of the empire’s existence. Indeed, so did its neighbors, allies, and enemies: When the Turkish Sultan Mehmet II conquered Constantinople in 1453, he took the title Caesar of Rome, placing himself in a direct line that led back to Augustus.

For far too many otherwise historically savvy people today, the story of the Byzantine civilization is something of a void. Yet for more than a millennium, Byzantium reigned as the glittering seat of Christian civilization. When Europe fell into the Dark Ages, Byzantium held fast against Muslim expansion, keeping Christianity alive. When literacy all but vanished in the West, Byzantium made primary education available to both sexes. Students debated the merits of Plato and Aristotle and commonly committed the entirety of Homer’s Iliad to memory. Streams of wealth flowed into Constantinople, making possible unprecedented wonders of art and architecture, from fabulous jeweled mosaics and other iconography to the great church known as the Hagia Sophia that was a vision of heaven on earth. The dome of the Great Palace stood nearly two hundred feet high and stretched over four acres, and the city’s population was more than twenty times that of London’s.

From Constantine, who founded his eponymous city in the year 330, to Constantine XI, who valiantly fought the empire’s final battle more than a thousand years later, the emperors who ruled Byzantium enacted a saga of political intrigue and conquest as astonishing as anything in recorded history. Lost to the West is replete with stories of assassination, mass mutilation and execution, sexual scheming, ruthless grasping for power, and clashing armies that soaked battlefields with the blood of slain warriors numbering in the tens of thousands.

Still, it was Byzantium that preserved for us today the great gifts of the classical world. Of the 55,000 ancient Greek texts in existence today, some 40,000 were transmitted to us by Byzantine scribes. And it was the Byzantine Empire that shielded Western Europe from invasion until it was ready to take its own place at the center of the world stage. Filled with unforgettable stories of emperors, generals, and religious patriarchs, as well as fascinating glimpses into the life of the ordinary citizen, Lost to the West reveals how much we owe to this empire that was the equal of any in its achievements, appetites, and enduring legacy.(less)

Hardcover, 352 pages

Published September 15th 2009 by Crown (first published 2009)

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Nov 25, 2011 Robert Clancy rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: non-fiction

I've recently read three examinations of the fall of Rome and the Byzantine Empire and this is the easiest, most enjoyable, most interesting read. Gibbon's Decline & Fall is a seminal work and a must to understand the entire scope of Roman history since Augustus. However, it was written over 200 years ago. Peter Heather's new examination of the reasons for the fall of Rome is labored and frankly boring to read. Brownworth breathes life into the Byzantines while showing the differences betwee...more

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Aug 05, 2012 Jennifer Weibel rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: history

"Lost to the West" is a long recitation of Byzantine emperors. The empire expands, the empire contracts, either the emperor loses steam in his old age or shenanigans ensue and he is murdered. I was reminded of the "begat" part of the bible, with the occasional incest thrown in for a little spice.

This book had a chance to shine. The ancient history of the middle east is fascinating, especially in the paragraphs dedicated to the root differences between Orthodoxy, Christians, and Islam. The probl...more

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Jul 10, 2012 Sharon rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: history

Lost to the West apparent intended audience is those who are unfamiliar with the history of the Eastern Roman Empire that continued on after the 476 A.D. deposition of Romulus Augustulus. It is not intended for serious students of history but should be viewed rather as an introduction to the Byzantium Empire.

It deals mainly with politics and military campaigns. The biographies of a select few emperors are included as Brownworth seems to be a follower of the 'great man' theory of history.

If you k...more

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Jun 10, 2012 David Withun rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: history

I was very, very disappointed with this book. I had a lot of very high expectations before I began reading and the book fell short of those in every possible way. Rather than the engaging read I was expecting, I instead got a rather boring rote recitation of dates, names, and places. The author also chooses to stick to the already quite debunked myths of people like Edward Gibbon on a great many matters, especially his examination of the reign of St. Constantine the Great. Then there are the unf...more

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Oct 28, 2011 Converse rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: history, non-fiction

If you are looking for a scholarly, sober, and detailed history of the Byzantine Empire, look elsewhere. If you are looking for entertainment and to learn a bit, and can put up with some cliches in the writing, this is a decent book.

Separating the Byzantine Empire from the Roman Empire is not simple, as the founding of the city Constantinople (now Istanbul) by Constantine in 330 was intended to provide the Roman Empire with a new capitol, not to found a new empire. Even before founding the city...more

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Feb 04, 2011 Douglas rated it 1 of 5 stars

This was a bad book. It begins with a false premise - that Byzantine history has been forgotten in the west. This is not true. I have read a number of books, all targeted at the non-scholar, about Byzantine history. John Julius Norwich's trilogy is excellent and far more detailed than Brownworth's breezy overview. Another false premise is that we are ingrates for supposedly forgetting Byzantium, because we owe it something for "saving Europe" from Islam. This would come as a surprise to the Span...more

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Cy I think the author's central point regarding Byzantine checking Muslim expansion and "protecting" Europe was that the Byzantine Empire was the powerfu...more
Nov 05, 2011 09:37pm

Andrew Stanley I find it interesting that the original reviewer criticizes this book for being exactly what the author says it will be - a rather general overview of...more
Aug 17, 2012 01:01pm

Jan 21, 2010 Paul Schulzetenberg rated it 3 of 5 stars

An excellent chronicle. Well-written, fluid prose tells a great story, propelling the reader from page to page and chapter to chapter. The writing style is anything but dry, which is particularly surprising given that the choice of topic is very staid. Mostly, it is a progression of emperors, and what happened under them. Many of the emperors whose reigns were particularly short or uneventful are glossed over. I certainly didn't mind, as nothing turns me off to a history faster than a biblical "...more

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Dec 15, 2009 David Bales rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: 52-books-in-52-weeks

Certainly one of the best books I've read this year, "Lost to the West" chronicles the Byzantine Empire, (or the Roman Empire in the east) from around 300 a.d. and the age of Constantine until 1453, when the empire fell to the Ottoman Turks. Amazing tales of intrigue with emperors, kings and generals over a thousand years. The Byzantine Empire served as a barrier between the East and West and was far in advance of Western Europe during the "Dark Ages" after the fall of the Western Empire. Brownw...more

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Sep 29, 2009 jordan rated it 5 of 5 stars

Prospective readers of Lars Brownworth’s “Lost to the West” should be aware what they are getting. For those unfamiliar with Brownworth, he was made famous in a uniquely 21st century way when he produced a podcast called “12 Byzantine Rulers” a narrative retelling of 1,000 years of Roman history through the lives of 12 emperors who reigned from Constantinople. The podcasts, which were told with a mix of passion, humor, facts, and a dollop of melodrama, were a runaway hit, downloaded by over 100,...more Prospective readers of Lars Brownworth’s “Lost to the West” should be aware what they are getting. For those unfamiliar with Brownworth, he was made famous in a uniquely 21st century way when he produced a podcast called “12 Byzantine Rulers” a narrative retelling of 1,000 years of Roman history through the lives of 12 emperors who reigned from Constantinople. The podcasts, which were told with a mix of passion, humor, facts, and a dollop of melodrama, were a runaway hit, downloaded by over 100,000 listeners. From this success, Brownworth earned a book contract.

“Lost to the West” continues very much in the vein of the podcast. It isn’t an academic history by any stretch, but is instead what some might call with derision a “popular history.” The story is told as narrative with the same melodrama as the podcast. No reader will have a moment of trouble telling Brownworth’s anointed heroes from his villains in any of the chapters. His often shallow analysis would surely be read as laughable by serious historians, as he time and again points to decisions and battles which, if only they had gone differently, might have postponed the “Dark Ages” by “centuries” or even avoided them altogether. Likewise, as an apparently unabashed fan of the “great man” view of history, Brownworth sees the fate of the empire turning perpetually on the choices of individuals with little attention to the Empire’s severe structural deficiencies as a highly centralized autocratic economic and political system unable to readily adapt to changing circumstances. Careful readers knowledgeable about the period will also detect quite a few errors of fact in the text.

And for all that I loved the book and happily give it five stars. Condemning Brownworth for not writing an academic history would be pedantic in the extreme; his goal was plainly to write an entertaining book which would invite those unfamiliar with the Byzantine history he loves to take a quick tour and maybe even get hooked. I cannot imagine he was trying to exhaustively cover more than 1,000 years of history but was seeking to write a page turner, much as his podcast (of which I was a devoted fan) made listeners eagerly await the next episode. While likely any student producing a paper on the subject would hopefully receive a less than satisfactory grade if they based it on “Lost to the West,” readers will find endless entertainment in Brownworth’s gift for supplying salacious details and crafting larger than life characters into heroes.

While good history is rarely the stuff of good vs. evil (and Brownworth’s distaste for Persia and the Islamic east and outright distain for the Feudal west are both so plain that they drip from the page) they do make for the stuff of great reads. While one can quibble with his method as a historian, as a storyteller, he delivers a tale that will leave many wanting to know when they can expect his next work.

(less)

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May 18, 2011 Owen rated it 3 of 5 stars

I have been a fan of Lars Brownworth since I discovered his 12 Byzantine Rulers podcasts years ago, and they powered me through some excruciating data entry at a dead end job (and his Norman Centuries podcasts cannot come out fast enough). I listened to the audio version of the book, so it felt very familiar to have Dr. Brownworth talking to me as I drove. Lost to the West is indeed a tragic story, and one I wasn't all that familiar with. The Byzantines, despite the author's protestations, were...more

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Oct 31, 2009 Lewis Manalo rated it 4 of 5 stars

In LOST TO THE WEST Brownworth argues that Rome didn't fall in 410 AD, the opinion of most historians, but that the center of the Roman Empire just moved, to Constantinople, where it survived through the Middle Ages. Despite a contrary view to most takes on Roman history, Brownworth's text is an entertaining read, as light as a documentary on the History Channel.

The antics and incest of the Roman royals out-do any telenovella for drama, but most interesting to me is the portrait of early Christ...more

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Mar 12, 2013 Jameson rated it 5 of 5 stars

There are two kinds of history.

One is the dusty, desiccated version written by dusty, desiccated intellectuals and taught by dusty, desiccated professors. This is the history that teaches us empires rose or fell because a particular currency fluctuated by a particular percentage within a particular period, causing an already strapped and stressed middle class to be unable to purchase the grain that had been imported from overseas because trade tariffs had resulted in an embargo that made economi...more

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Jul 06, 2012 Liz rated it 1 of 5 stars

Shelves: nonfiction, i-want-my-time-back

I stumbled upon this title in the footnote of another history book (Civilization: The West and the Rest) and the reviews on Goodreads seemed to be universally quite good, so I was quite excited to pick up this book and perhaps broaden my knowledge of the Byzantine Empire.

However, after reading this book, I feel like I'm taking crazy pills, because I hated it by the end of the second sentence of the introduction. Maybe this is because I have a degree in Medieval Studies, but I take extreme umbrag...more I stumbled upon this title in the footnote of another history book (Civilization: The West and the Rest) and the reviews on Goodreads seemed to be universally quite good, so I was quite excited to pick up this book and perhaps broaden my knowledge of the Byzantine Empire.

However, after reading this book, I feel like I'm taking crazy pills, because I hated it by the end of the second sentence of the introduction. Maybe this is because I have a degree in Medieval Studies, but I take extreme umbrage at the usage of "Dark Ages" even in a somewhat un-scholarly work such as this. The fact that Lars Brownworth is a high school teacher makes me hope (beyond hope!) that he isn't spreading this nonsense to his students, but I suspect he is more than happy to spread his Petrarchian concept of Medieval Europe.

Moreover, this book really isn't saying anything new. Perhaps if you have no knowledge of the Middle Ages on the whole, the concept of a prospering Eastern Roman Empire in Constantinople is a novel concept to you. If you've taken an introductory class or read an introductory work on the Middle Ages, however, all of the information in this book will be old hat (now with a Byzantine bias!) Mr Brownworth would argue that the Byzantine Empire was entirely to be thanked for preserving the legacy of classical Roman and Greek texts and teachings, but totally ignores the various renaissances happening in Europe contemporaneously that also ensured the preservation of texts (Merovingian Renaissance, Carolingian Renaissance, Twelfth Century Renaissance? Anyone?? ... Bueller?) This doesn't even touch upon the huge debt that Medieval Europe (and Byzantium!) had to the Muslim East and the texts they preserved. Rather, Mr Brownworth is happy to paint the Muslims in the same way that traditional histories paint the Vikings, the Mongols, and the various barbarian hoardes: as threats to peace, stability, and good Christian government.

If you actually enjoy some history in your history books, stay far away from this one.(less)

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Jan 27, 2013 Kristie Kercheval rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: world-history

Yes, as other reviewers have said, it is told from an "old-fashioned" perspective of rulers and generals and wars, but I still enjoyed it. I don't want to give away the ending, but the technology of warfare did play a role in the end of the Byzantines. Plus, the personalities that led Byzantium are fascinating, so it makes sense to look at the Empire from this perspective.

I am biased in that I took a few Byzantine Art and History classes in college, so for me it was a refresher course. If you h...more

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Jan 12, 2012 Ireney Berezniak rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: byzantium, europe, history, non-fiction

"Lost To West" is a highly accessible introduction to the history of the Byzantine Empire. Lars Bronsworth focuses on the most relevant, high-level episodes of the empire's history, highlighting its more colourful and controversial leaders, and largely ignoring the less eventful reigns. As such, this title is certainly not aimed at serious scholars, but rather laymen such us myself interested more in a smooth overview, rather than a dry political or theological discourse.

Lars Bronworth's style i...more

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Dec 12, 2011 Lynne Cattafi rated it 2 of 5 stars

My problem with the book is its clear anti-Muslim sentiment. Though Brownworth paints the Crusaders poorly, they're at best portrayed as roving bands of thugs, while the Ottomans are "jihadists." He describes the capture of Constantinople as an event which plunged Europe into "five centuries of a living hell" and "enslavement." The Muslims are routinely excoriated while other atrocious acts by Westerners are at best tisked at. Now, did Mehmet commit atrocities? Of course -- they all did! It was...more

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Jan 05, 2011 Patrick rated it 5 of 5 stars

Amazon review:

“Rome never fell -- it simply moved five hundred miles East -- to Byzantium. For over a thousand years the Byzantines commanded one of the most visceral and vivid empires the world has ever known. And yet their achievements are consistently underplayed; written out of history. Lars Brownworth is a rare talent. His contagious passion brings murderous empresses, conniving eunuchs, lost Greek texts and Byzantine treasures of fairy-tale proportions blinking back into the light. Confide...more

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Oct 26, 2012 Garrett rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: history

This is a decent one-volume history of the the Byzantine Empire. Brownworth does a decent job of boiling of down over 1000 years of history into a single book -- a herculean task by any stretch. Focussing on the emporers and empresses of the empire, Brownworth gives an unfamiliar reader a taste of this marvelous piece of history. Definitely written for those who are not familiar with Byzantine history and culture, but a good refresher for those who do.

He includes helpful information about the cu...more

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Jun 16, 2012 G33z3r rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: history, audiobook

This was exactly the kind of book I was looking for: a straightforward, highly-readable story of a thousand years of the Eastern Roman Empire (now known as the Byzantine Empire.) The author. Lars Brownworth. avoids a lot of extraneous detail and skimps on the dates, glossing over many of the less-effective and shorter-lived periods, preferring to explain the significance of the most important emperors and generals in the history of the forgotten half of the Roman empire.

The fall of Rome and the...more

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Jan 20, 2012 Jennifer rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: history, non-fiction

Covering over 1000 years of history in 350 pages, Lost to the West is a fascinating and enjoyable overview of the Byzantine Empire. Focusing on the greatest emperors and the most significant events, Brownworth's love of the subject is contagious. As he states in his title, his two main points are that western civilization would not have survived without the presence of the empire seated in Constantinople, and that we in the west have forgotten them. The latter was plainly true for me, which is w...more

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May 18, 2012 Warren Watts rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: history

Before reading this book, I knew little about the Byzantine Empire. I am embarrassed to say that I wasn't even aware it was the eastern offspring of the Roman Empire. This book definitely opened my eyes to a whole region of world history completely unknown to me.

The book is a lot more than an introduction to the Byzantine Empire, somewhat surprising considering it's relatively small size. The author does a great job of squeezing 1,100+ years of history into ~350 pages without drowning the reade...more

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Sep 30, 2010 Elizabeth Sulzby rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: nonfiction, source-material

A very readable account of the Byzantine world and how it kept literacy, philosophy, art, etc., alive during the so called "Dark Ages."

I learned lots from this book and it certainly provides part of the puzzle of what was working in the world that wasn't ruled by Roman Christianity. I had wondered when and why the "church" formally broke into Roman and Orthodox branches (Brownworth dates it as 1054). It gets tiresome because he goes through the Byzantine Tsars/csars/rulers one by one. On the oth...more A very readable account of the Byzantine world and how it kept literacy, philosophy, art, etc., alive during the so called "Dark Ages."

I learned lots from this book and it certainly provides part of the puzzle of what was working in the world that wasn't ruled by Roman Christianity. I had wondered when and why the "church" formally broke into Roman and Orthodox branches (Brownworth dates it as 1054). It gets tiresome because he goes through the Byzantine Tsars/csars/rulers one by one. On the other hand, now I know where I can get that info.

Another strand that I appreciated: how empire builders kept or lost their conquests: Augustus, Julius Caesar, Alexander, and now the Byzantine rulers. Some like Augustus left rulers and "booty" to keep a conquest going; others went on, ignored, and lost their conquests, often after looting all their riches.

It's interesting to look at the history of the relationships Roman church and rulers and contrast that with the Byzantines who kept church and state far more separated.

Questions like "what really happened" that are hard to find sources for:
What happened during the first 250 years CE for followers of Jesus and the other forms of Christianity? What were the early Christian churches really like? How was it that the Nag Hammadi and Dead Sea scrolls also contained secular literature when the "church" had those sources burned, condemned, etc.? Brownworth credits the Byzantine Empire with keeping Greek and Roman philosophy, history, art, etc., alive so they became a source for Renaissance thinkers.

I am almost done and am in the middle of his account of the Crusades. It's far less colorful than the recent accounts of the Templars, etc., and he doesn't weave the Crusade events and groups back into the culture as does, for example, Karen Armstrong in Holy Wars.

This book has a good introduction. It can be used as a summary without reading the entire book. But because he uses a chronological ruler by ruler account it's not so useful to let a reader pick and choose topics. You're almost forced to read front to back to make sense of what he covers.(less)

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Ned WOOPS! there was more there on Ms Pagels. She's a real historian in this field. Heard her give a talk 10 years ago before she worked on one of the Gos...more
Oct 07, 2010 12:40pm

Elizabeth Sulzby Ned wrote: "WOOPS! there was more there on Ms Pagels. She's a real historian in this field. Heard her give a talk 10 years ago before she worked on on...more Ned wrote: "WOOPS! there was more there on Ms Pagels. She's a real historian in this field. Heard her give a talk 10 years ago before she worked on one of the Gospels of Thomas. Very interesting talk. Even..."

Dear Ned, sorry for taking so long to answer. I'd already read a lot of Pagels because of my interest in hellenization and gnosticism. She was mentored by Helmut Koeter, whom you've already read. He was my mentor at Harvard when I was far too young and unschooled to appreciate him. I was his family's babysitter as well as his student and his wife urged me to take her seat at a Leonard Bernstein concert when she had to stay home with her sick baby. I didn't know until recently that he's still alive and I also didn't know he had been a war prisoner. I think I was around 20 and they seemed "old" to me then but clearly he wasn't.

I followed up on Armstrong but haven't found her other writings so helpful to me. I too had trouble with the compactedness (word?) of Holy War but it's the best I've found about balancing the 3 religions in their history before and after the crusades. My edition is after 9/11 so that helped too.

I am not a trained historian, but I haved used Koester's and Krister Stendal's work on oral and written traditions as an underpinning to some of my work.

Sounds as if we have pretty similar motivations and picked up skills. Amazing that you've studies ancient greek and latin! I have a minor in ancient greek but you probably are most proficient than I am now.

I have become ferociously interested in the Anatolia/Byzantine/Turkish histories and this made me double back on Roman history. I think I "kept" from college the, "first Mesopotamia, then Greek, Roman, Dark Ages, England/Norman/Celtic stuff, America and it's explorations and settlements." Wow! That's so weak. Venice has kept coming into my readings along the edges and i don't feel drawn to study it yet.

I am trying to move myself back to the prehistory strand so i'll try to post some on that. It's so good to have an internet friend who isn't bored to death but is interested in this stuff.

Thanks for the reference to Peter Brown, and your other refs and books I've seen on your page.
--Elizabeth(less)
Oct 15, 2010 01:52pm

May 08, 2013 Nancy Wu rated it 4 of 5 stars

Notable quotes :

Regarding Basil of the Macedonian dynasty, which was both impressive in the Byzantine era, and was only labeled Macedonian by accident rather than by birth-right ---

"Basil asked his guest for advice on how to prevent dissension in the future. The answer, he was told, was to declare a virtual war on those of noble birth. “Exhaust them with unjust exactions, to keep them busy with their own affairs. Admit no woman to the imperial councils. Be accessible to no one. Share with few yo...more

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Feb 05, 2013 Byron rated it 4 of 5 stars

This is a fantastic history book about the Byzantine Empire. As author Lars Brownworth, himself, states in the forward the book, this history is personality based. So it jumps from the perspective of one Emperor after another, from the time each takes power to when they either die or loses their title. While Brownworth's approach is very entertaining, those that wish to have a more in depth view of life in the Byzantine Empire will only get it from a distance. Since the perspective is from that...more

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Dec 26, 2012 Margaret Sankey rated it 2 of 5 stars

I was hoping that this was to the Byzantine empire what the Rise of Rome a couple of weeks was to the Republic--a popular, well-done survey of history I could hand to people who wanted to know more but weren't interested in scholarly stuff. This isn't terrible...it just isn't great. The author clearly loves the subject but not enough to learn Greek or engage with the many secondary scholarly works, he takes the most immediate version of things and mischaracterizes people and events like "Irene w...more

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Jun 09, 2012 ken roberts rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: history, non-fiction

Brownworth got this book deal thanks to his excellent podcast, 12 Byzantine Rulers. I strongly recommend trying that first.

The book is an expanded version of the podcast, without being restricted by the 12 Rulers conceit. That said, i'm not sure how much of that additional, non-podcasted information i really needed or retained.

Taken as a work, independent from the podcast, Lost to the West is quite good and covers material that i never covered in school (aside from the 1453 fall of Constantinopl...more

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Sep 07, 2011 Ray rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

A very readable account of the Byzantine Empire which provided a "Who's Who" of forgotten Emperors, and filled in a number of missing pieces in my understanding of that part of the old Roman Empire, including the importance of the Byzantine Empire in preserving ancient texts and learning, information on how and why the Roman Catholic and Greek Orthodox religions separated, details of the many conquests and losses of territory and influence in the region over the years, and real insights into the...more

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Dec 10, 2009 Snail in Danger (Sid) Nicolaides marked it as decided-not-to-read

Shelves: history

After giving up on Sailing from Byzantium, I was hoping that this would cover the material in a more interesting way. However, I realized I was halfway through the book, and cultural material had barely been addressed. It was a fairly straightforward military/political history, albeit one with more drama than usual. I flipped around, and didn't get the impression it was really going to live up to its title.

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Apr 03, 2013 Brian rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

There are a number of reviews critical of inaccuracies or the amateur character of the book. These criticisms are just. Mr. Brownworth is not an academic, nor does he always get his facts right. If that undermined any thesis of the book, or intruded on his prose it would bother me. However, this is not the case.

I found it best to embrace his status as a non-professional historian. He's a bit like a charismatic uncle; an autodidact with lots of great stories. He's splendid company and instills a...more

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Mar 20, 2013 Taro Yamashita rated it 4 of 5 stars

The scope of time that this book covers is ambitious, given its size. The author writes in an approachable, lively style. It was fun to read. However, I just got tired of the pattern of the actual history, which just repeated itself with generation after generation of the same sort of war, political intrigue, usurpation, backstabbing, political gerry-mandering, etc. Clearly, humans have failed to study history, as we keep repeating it.

The patterns are the same in modern times, also. That was per...more

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