Dominion: The Making of the Western Mind

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A masterpiece of scholarship and storytelling, Dominion surpasses Holland's earlier books in its sweeping ambition and gripping presentation -- John Gray * New Statesman * [Holland encapsulates] so much, so intelligently and entertainingly, in a book that's fizzing with ideas -- Andrew Lycett * Mail on Sunday * I love the sweep of it * Sunday Telegraph * Tom Holland's stupendous new book . The book runs as a story through time and this chronological format does help the flow of the book but I do wonder whether a format based on themes might have brought greater clarity to the main argument (i. Recommended to anyone looking to get a new perspective on how western culture was and continues to be this day shaped by a death of a single man in a remote backwater of the Roman empire in the year 786 ab urbe condita.

The aim is twofold: to make the reader appreciate just how novel and uncanny were Christian teachings when they first appeared in the world; and to make ourselves, and all that we take for granted, appear similarly strange in consequence. His translation of Herodotus was published in 2013 by Penguin Classics and followed in 2016 by a history of Æthelstan published under the Penguin Monarchs series, and in 2019 Æthelflæd England's Forgotten Founder as a Ladybird Expert Book. The obvious riposte to all this is that the church has often been oppressive and persecuting, and Holland makes that point vividly. They were branded as rootless vagrants who delighted in being alien, and thus made a boast out of what should have been a source of shame. Samuel Moyn, writing for the Financial Times, similarly stated that "Holland shines in his panoramic survey of how disruptive Christianity was for the ethical and political assumptions that preceded it", though also criticizing how "the illustration of the conquest of the west by Christianity risks becoming so total that it explains everything and nothing.average hourly wage with the cost of a suite at the Peninsula costing over two thousand dollars a night. I kept thinking about the book, kept mulling the idea over and then started to see WHY this idea was so important to how I should ultimately view "Western values" and it's so unique and WHY it is so worth preserving them. Holland shows how these concepts and events continue to shape our culture, our expectations and norms today, without us realizing where they actually come from. But those dismissive of religion, for which I have some sympathy, should understand that many of their valued concepts of equality, emancipation and liberalism originate in Christianity. You can change your choices at any time by visiting Cookie preferences, as described in the Cookie notice.

Tom Holland is fun to read, monstrously erudite, wickedly joyful, and ahead of the established consensus, on average, by four years, three months, and two days --Nassim Nicholas Taleb, author of the Incerto (The Black Swan, Antifragile. A further point of interest was how the Jewish community in Prussia modified their identification with a Jewish nation to that of Jewishness as a religion a fact which was enforced upon them by Prussan regulations. It speaks of how you will know who God is when you see the poor coming to power and the rich sent empty away. Holland gives a moving account of the role played by Christians in fighting racism and segregation in the US.The author on occasion does some myth-busting and makes a retelling of well known historical events (such as the Galileo debacle) with more context. Even the increasing number in the West today who have abandoned the faith of their forebears, and dismiss all religion as pointless superstition, remain recognisably its heirs. In 2007, he was the winner of the Classical Association prize, awarded to 'the individual who has done most to promote the study of the language, literature and civilisation of Ancient Greece and Rome'. Throughout Holland manages to avoid superficiality as much as possible for a book of popular history and introduces some bona fide theological concepts and crucial ideas.