Civilization & Culture Books - Page 6

Genesis Revisited: Is Modern Science Catching Up With Ancient Knowledge?

Zecharia Sitchin

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 42 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Fun to think about, but... 3 out of 5 stars.
8 of 9 people found this review helpful.

I saw this book as a way of speeding up the process of getting through Sitchin's ideas as the prospect of reading the full series was a bit daunting - and I love to read! My previous experience with his books were of very dense prose not exactly easy to read. Lots of material. This book is a bit quicker and less intense. Not that Sitchin doesn't present his usual evidence and theories. I enjoy allowing my mind to take up his ideas but there always seem to be a point where he makes a jump of reasoning. Not that he's necessarily wrong. It's just that the presentation of evidence doesn't necessarily continue up to the point of making a conclusion. Too bad the book is even now significantly dated in terms of interstellar developments.

Editorial Review:

Modern Technology . . . or Knowledge of the Ancients?

Space travel . . . Genetic engineering . . . Computer science . . . Astounding achievements as new as tomorrow. But stunning recent evidence proves that as these ultramodern advances were known to our forfathers millions of yrsterdays ago . . . as early as 3,000 years before the birth of Christ!

In this remarkable companion volume to his landmark EARTH CHRONICLES series, author Zecharia Sitchin reexamines the teachings of the ancients in the light of mankind's latest scientific discoveries -- and uncovers breathtaking, never-before-revealed facts that challenge long-held, conventional beliefs about our planet and our species.

The Classical World: An Epic History from Homer to Hadrian

Robin Lane Fox

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 12 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Fill-in the gaps in your knowledge of history and have fun doing it 5 out of 5 stars.
3 of 4 people found this review helpful.

I enjoy reading history and decided on this book to give me information about an era I know little about, ancient Greece and Rome. This work is an excellent introduction to this topic and is quite enjoyable to read. The chapters are generally twelve pages or less, so it is convenient to sample the material in small doses. And those doses prove to be fascinating enough to tempt the reader to push on through succeeding chapters even as the eyelids grow heavy at night.

This is a narrative history which chronologically traces the developments of both societies. It is heavy on political events, but provides enough social history to make the period come alive. Fox's work can serve as a fine springboard for later reading in more concentrated areas that the reader may wish to explore. For the person with an interest in history, Professor Fox lays a basic foundation and provides a strong sense of understanding what made Grecian and Roman societies work. In an engaging style, he helps us understand how many traditions, practices, and values evolved in western civilization.

Editorial Review:

The classical civilizations of Greece and Rome once dominated the world, and they continue to fascinate and inspire us. Classical art and architecture, drama and epic, philosophy and politics--these are the foundations of Western civilization. In The Classical World, eminent classicist Robin Lane Fox brilliantly chronicles this vast sweep of history from Homer to the reign of Hadrian. From the Peloponnesian War through the creation of Athenian democracy, from the turbulent empire of Alexander the Great to the creation of the Roman Empire and the emergence of Christianity, Fox serves as our witty and trenchant guide. He introduces us to extraordinary heroes and horrific villains, great thinkers and blood-thirsty tyrants. Throughout this vivid tour of two of the greatest civilizations the world has ever known, we remain in the hands of a great master.

The Greatest Minds and Ideas of All Time (Audio Editions)

Will Durant

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Total reviews: 23 Average rating: 3.5 of 5

Great CD.....full of wonderful historical info! 4 out of 5 stars.
1 of 2 people found this review helpful.

Will Durant and his wife Ariel devoted over 50 years to the study of history and philosophy; creating 11 sage volumes of "The Story of Civilization."

His dedication and hard work ultimately earned him a Pulitzer Prize in literature, followed by the highest award granted by the United States government to civilians, the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Ford in 1977.

Durant endeavored to make history more than just dates committed to memory and to bring our human heritage richly alive in the men and women who've walked before us and influenced our lives.

Often called THE GENTLE PHILOSOPHER, his words are laced with warmth and humor as he brings these great thinkers to life!

His lists include the best books for an education, the ten greatest thinkers, the ten greatest poets, twelve vital dates in human history, and the ten peaks of human progress.

I have listened to this in the car and have learned that I have many books and authors with which I have yet to acquaint myself!

It's read with wit, warmth, and wisdom.

Highly recommended!

"The most interesting thing in the world is another human being who wonders, suffers and raises the questions that have bothered him to the last day of his life, knowing he will never get the answers."
Will Durant

Editorial Review:

Over the course of a legendary career, Will Durant was often asked about the most significant events in history, the best books, the best ideas, and so on. The Greatest Minds and Ideas of All Time draws on Durant's encyclopedic knowledge to present a world history "best of" that hits humanity's high points. Included are "The Ten Greatest Thinkers," "The Ten Greatest Poets," "The Ten Peaks of Human Progress," "Twelve Vital Dates in World History," as well as engaging profiles of pioneers like Darwin, Keats, and Whitman. This audio edition showcases Durant's eloquence, originality, and his ability to compare and contrast an array of historical figures and achievements.

Worlds at War: The 2,500-Year Struggle Between East and West

Anthony Pagden

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Total reviews: 8 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

Spanning two and a half millennia, Anthony Pagden’s mesmerizing Worlds at War delves deep into the roots of the “clash of civilizations” between East and West that has always been a battle over ideas, and whose issues have never been more urgent.

Worlds At War begins in the ancient world, where Greece saw its fight against the Persian Empire as one between freedom and slavery, between monarchy and democracy, between individuality and the worship of men as gods. Here, richly rendered, are the crucial battle of Marathon, considered the turning point of Greek and European history; the heroic attempt by the Greeks to turn the Persians back at Thermopylae; and Salamis, one of the greatest naval battles of all time, which put an end to the Persian threat forever.

From there Pagden’s story sweeps to Rome, which created the modern concepts of citizenship and the rule of law. Rome’s leaders believed those they conquered to be free, while the various peoples of the East persisted in seeing their subjects as property. Pagden dramatizes the birth of Christianity in the East and its use in the West as an instrument of government, setting the stage for what would become, and has remained, a global battle of the secular against the sacred. Then Islam, at first ridiculed in Christian Europe, drives Pope Urban II to launch the Crusades, which transform the relationship between East and West into one of competing religious beliefs.

Modern times bring a first world war, which among its many murky aims seeks to redesign the Muslim world by force. In our own era, Muslims now find themselves in unwelcoming Western societies, while the West seeks to enforce democracy and its own secular values through occupation in the East. Pagden ends on a cautionary note, warning that terrorism and war will continue as long as sacred and secular remain confused in the minds of so many.
Eye-opening and compulsively readable, Worlds at War is a stunning work of history and a triumph of modern scholarship. It is bound to become the definitive work on the reasons behind the age-old and still escalating struggle that, more than any other, has come to define the modern world–a book for anyone seeking to know why “we came to be the way we are.”

The Closing of the Western Mind: The Rise of Faith and the Fall of Reason

Charles Freeman

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Total reviews: 64 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

A radical and powerful reappraisal of the impact of Constantine’s adoption of Christianity on the later Roman world, and on the subsequent development both of Christianity and of Western civilization.

When the Emperor Contstantine converted to Christianity in 368 AD, he changed the course of European history in ways that continue to have repercussions to the present day. Adopting those aspects of the religion that suited his purposes, he turned Rome on a course from the relatively open, tolerant and pluralistic civilization of the Hellenistic world, towards a culture that was based on the rule of fixed authority, whether that of the Bible, or the writings of Ptolemy in astronomy and of Galen and Hippocrates in medicine. Only a thousand years later, with the advent of the Renaissance and the emergence of modern science, did Europe begin to free itself from the effects of Constantine's decision, yet the effects of his establishment of Christianity as a state religion remain with us, in many respects, today. Brilliantly wide-ranging and ambitious, this is a major work of history.

Confucius Lives Next Door: What Living in the East Teaches Us About Living in the West

T.R. Reid

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Total reviews: 48 Average rating: 3.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

Those who've heard T. R. Reid's weekly commentary on National Public Radio or read his far-flung reporting in National Geographic or  The Washington Post know him to be trenchant, funny, and cutting-edge, but also erudite and deeply grounded in whatever subject he's discussing. In Confucius Lives Next Door he brings all these attributes to the fore as he examines why Japan, China, Taiwan, and other East Asian countries enjoy the low crime rates, stable families, excellent education, and civil harmony that remain so elusive in the West. Reid, who has spent twenty-five years studying Asia and was for five years The Washington Post's Tokyo bureau chief, uses his family's experience overseas--including mishaps and misapprehensions--to look at Asia's "social miracle" and its origin in the ethical values outlined by the Chinese sage Confucius 2,500 years ago.
        
When Reid, his wife, and their three children moved from America to Japan, the family quickly became accustomed to the surface differences between the two countries. In Japan, streets don't have names, pizza comes with seaweed sprinkled on top, and businesswomen in designer suits and Ferragamo shoes go home to small concrete houses whose washing machines are outdoors because there's no room inside. But over time Reid came to appreciate the deep cultural differences, helped largely by his courtly white-haired neighbor Mr. Matsuda, who personified ancient Confucian values that are still dominant in Japan. Respect, responsibility, hard work--these and other principles are evident in Reid's witty, perfectly captured portraits, from that of the school his young daughters attend, in which the students maintain order and scrub the floors, to his depiction of the corporate ceremony that welcomes new employees and reinforces group unity. And Reid also examines the drawbacks of living in such a society, such as the ostracism of those who don't fit in and the acceptance of routine political bribery.
        
Much Western ink has been spilled trying to figure out the East, but few journalists approach the subject with T. R. Reid's familiarity and insight. Not until we understand the differences between Eastern and Western perceptions of what constitutes success and personal happiness will we be able to engage successfully, politically and economically, with those whose moral center is governed by Confucian doctrine. Fascinating and immensely readable, Confucius Lives Next Door prods us to think about what lessons we might profitably take from the "Asian Way"--and what parts of it we want to avoid.

Classics of Western Thought Series: The Modern World, Volume III

Edgar F. Knoebel

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Total reviews: 1 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Useful and Educational 5 out of 5 stars.
5 of 5 people found this review helpful.

This book is used as a companion to my high school Modern European History AP class. We read philosophers which correspond to the time periods we are studying and have lively debates in class. The book gives enough background information to put each writer in historical context, and condenses each writer's work and ideas neatly and concisely. Some of the more difficult vocabulary is defined in footnotes, which can be helpful to students. If you're looking for an overview or comparison of different Western philosohers, this is a great book, but if you're looking to go in depth with any particular one, you may want to purchase a full version of the text you're interested in.

Editorial Review:

Originally published under the General Editorship of Thomas H. Greer, the series emanated from the Humanities Department of Michigan State University. The books remain today perhaps the best sources available for the comprehensive study in one volume of every subject area which might be included in the umbrella of humanities. Most major literary forms are represented: essay, poem, short story, play, novel, memoir, epigram, scientific discourse, philosophical treatise, political manifesto, and religious proclamation. All major subject areas are explored: art, music, education, mathematics, biology, psychiatry, religion, philosophy, politics, economics, and physics. The informative apparatus, headnotes, and footnotes are all aimed at enhancing the student-reader's comprehension.

EVOLUTION OF CIVILIZATIONS, THE

CARROLL QUIGLEY

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Total reviews: 17 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Parsimonious Nonsense 1 out of 5 stars.
9 of 19 people found this review helpful.

Not recommended. This simplistic attempt to create a "scientific" approach to the understanding of history is useless except as an example of an outdated mode of thinking which did not take into account the principles of chaos, complexity, and uncertainty. Human history is among the most complex and chaotic of systems. Keep in mind that Quigley wrote this book during the era (the 1950s and early 1960s) when it was widely believed that within a few decades, "science" would enable us to perfectly predict and control another complex system, the weather.

The understanding of history is best approached through the lens of moral philosophy, not through the kind of pseudoscience presented in this book.

Editorial Review:

A comprehensive and perceptive look at the factors behind the rise and fall of civilizations. Quigley defines a civilization as "a producing society with an instrument of expansion". A civilization's decline is not inevitable but occurs when its instrument of expansion is transformed into an institution-that is, when social arrangements that meet real social needs are transformed into social institutions serving their own purposes regardless of real social needs.

A History of Islamic Societies

Ira M. Lapidus

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Total reviews: 12 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

NOT for beginners or the mildly apathetic 2 out of 5 stars.
10 of 20 people found this review helpful.

This book is very comprehensive, which is either a blessing or curse depending on your background. As someone who knew nothing about Islam prior to reading this book, I was frequently overwhelmed by the mass of information that Lapidus has arranged. As you may notice by the sheer volume of this 970 page book, it is VERY wordy. Like most history texts, it is also very dry and devoid of emotion. The author does, however, provide a complex view of Islam that is fair and accurate.

Editorial Review:

A History of Islamic Societies provides an authoritative and comprehensive treatment of the civilisations and patterns of life of Muslims throughout the world. Part I deals with the formative era of Islamic civilisation from the revelation of the Qur'an to the Thirteenth century and examines the transformation of Islam from a complex of doctrines and cultural systems into the organising principles of Middle Eastern Society. Part II traces the creation of similar societies in the Balkans, North Africa, Central Asia, China, India, Southeast Asia and sub-Saharan Africa. Part III considers the transformation of these societies under the forces of technological change, industrial revolution and European imperialism. It describes the emergence of modern economies, national states and secular ideologies in Muslim countries and seeks to assess the role of past Islamic institutions and present Islamic movements in the shaping of contemporary Muslim society.

Civilization One: The World Is Not as You Thought It Was

Christopher Knight, Alan Butler

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Total reviews: 21 Average rating: 3.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

Civilization One tells of the startling conclusions that came from two scientists' quest to try to crack the mystery of the ancient "megalithic yard" — a unit of 82.966656 centimeters used to construct thousands of megalithic structures in Britain and France. The discovery was an extraordinary ancient culture predating the earliest known civilizations. The scientists of this time derived the megalithic yard from observing the Earth's rate of spin. The authors show how this measurement is part of an integrated system, far more advanced than anything used today, that forms the basis of both the imperial and metric systems. The culture that created it understood the dimensions, motions, and relationships of the Earth, moon, and sun, and were able to actually measure the solar system. The implications of these revelations go far beyond the fascination of the discovery of a super-science of prehistory; they indicate a grand plan which will have far-reaching theological ramifications.