Recent acquisition from St Mark's Cathedral for our personal library.
A hardback copy of one of my favourite books, which these days is usually found only in paperback.
4 likes
Recent acquisition from St Mark's Cathedral for our personal library.
A hardback copy of one of my favourite books, which these days is usually found only in paperback.
Art was a comfort to the Greeks. Through wars, natural disasters, and the cruel fates of life, art has a way of saving people, and the Greeks recognized that and used it, particularly in their tragedies. #tragedy #art #europe #normandavies #greek #ancientgreece #europeanhistory #history #worldhistory #greekhistory #arthistory
so-soI both loved this book and hated it. I consume a lot of academic history and this did not scratch that itch. While it does contain some interesting narrative on the evolution of writing and books which is what I came for, it‘s clear that the author is a novelist by trade and not a historian. As others have noted, this reads more like a long form personal essay that happens to meander through the history of books among other topics. Beware.
I‘m going to use a word I probably shouldn‘t and see where it goes. The Phoenicians were Semites just like the Jews and the Arabs. The worshipped Baal and were often singled out by the Greeks and the Romans who eventually adopted the Judaeo-Christian tradition. For this reason, we don‘t know very much about this group of people even though they were around for over 1,000 years. How did antisemitism of the Phoenicians hurt them and their story?
We also learned about the Theory of Chaos where small actions can have a large impact on complex systems over time. I got a feeling we‘ll be using this theory more often. I‘m not going to make a discussion out of it, but I want us all to think about the previous books we have read and think about where the Theory of Chaos may apply. #theoryofchaos #history #europe #europeanhistory #normandavies #cnossos #mycenae #crete #prehistory
"In absolute governments the great nobles who are nearest to the throne flatter the passions of the sovereign, and voluntarily truckle to his caprices. But the mass of the nation does not degrade itself by servitude: it often submits from weakness, from habit, or from ignorance, and sometimes from loyalty."
-Alexis de Tocqueville, "Democracy in America"
We learned some new terms in the end starting with Catastrophe Theory where math is used to understand how sudden, discontinuous changes can arise from smooth, continuous changes. #chaostheory #europe #normandavies #history #prehistory #cnossos #mycenae #thera #europeanhistory #volcano #volcanoceruptions #greece
#julyjazz
#redwhitebluecvr
Never was this book more prevalent than now. We need a new Woodward and Bernstein. 💙✊🏻💙
so-soAt first, I thought the title implied the unruliness of royalty from Alfred to Elizabeth I. Oh, no. It is David Mitchell's irreverent, and sometimes, irrelevant, and a lot of times, blasphemous humor. It was like Finding Waldo. Where are the facts in the midst of a three page rant of why Hollywood killed James Bond? I know he wrote it during the covid lockdown. He must have been so bored. I still like him as a comedian. #LitsyAtoZ @Texreader
pickAfter 1177 BC, by Eric Cline (2024)
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Premise: An exploration of the latest evidence on the recovery of the Aegean, Eastern Mediterranean, and Mespotamian worlds in the aftermath of the Late Bronze Age Collapse.
Review: I am a big fan of Cline‘s book 1177 BC, which documented the disappearance within a single generation of a centuries-old network of civilizations. ⬇️
