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Lunch » Tags » Books » Reviews » Lost to the West: The Forgotten Byzantine Empire That Rescued Western Civilization » User review

A good introduction, but very general

  • Sep 27, 2009
Rating:
+3
This book comes recommended by Anthony Everitt and Tom Holland, two of the best popularizers of ancient Western history. As such, I figured it had to be pretty good. Following his successful podcast, Lars Brownworth introduces the Byzantine empire to the modern world. Often overlooked, Byzantium was the heir to Rome and a major civilization that lasted 1,000 years after the "fall of Rome" in 476. As Brownworth points out, Western civilization owes a huge debt to Byzantium, from modern legal codes to defending Western Europe against Islam. Brownworth makes this thousand-year story accessible to the modern reader.

[Note: the book covers the same territory as the podcast, although the book is more detailed and worth reading if you liked the podcast.]

Brownworth's Lost to the West: The Forgotten Byzantine Empire That Rescued Western Civilization is literally the thousand-year history of Byzantium. It begins with Constantine and ends with the Muslim conquest in 1453. Sometimes this means the book reads too quickly, with emperors dying before the reader even gets to know them. Golden ages fade quickly into dark ages - and then back again to golden ages. However, Brownworth's goal is to introduce Byzantium to the 21st century public and, as he puts it, whet the reader's appetite for more. Doing so requires speeding past decades, or even centuries, of history, but this is often necessary to complete the story in one volume. The scope is ambitious, although I think by and large Brownworth succeeds in both providing enough detail to make Byzantium real and not getting too bogged down within a particular time period. Furthermore, this is no dry history textbook - the story is replete with wars, charismatic leaders, assassinations, and sex scandals.

Brownworth takes a "big man" approach to history, which focuses on the emperors and leaders rather than ideologies or the common peasants in Byzantium. He chooses the most important emperors and focuses on their reigns (his podcast was appropriately titled "12 Byzantine Rulers"). I agree this probably the best way to present history for non-experts, especially for a place like Byzantium. Indeed, Brownworth does a great job showing how the tides of Byzantine history changed dramatically with changes in political leadership. Byzantium did remarkably well when capable military rulers took the reigns of power, but floundered when aristocrats and petty thugs ruled. By contrast, most of the ideological disputes centered around obscure Christian doctrine (e.g., Arians versus Orthodox), so wouldn't be as exciting to readers as the dramatic political movements of the 20th century. While it is certainly outside the scope of this book, it certainly would have been nice to learn a bit more about Byzantium's contributions to culture and the sciences. But alas, 1,000 years is a long time to cover.

Overall, I think Brownworth does a great job in this book and provides an important service in making Byzantium more accessible and, well, less byzantine. However, at times I think he becomes a bit too pithy and cliched in describing certain historical personages. For example, good emperors work hard in "service" to the empire, while bad leaders are "power-hungry" or fools. "Ominous clouds" threaten the empire far too many times in one book. While Brownworth is probably right in most of these assessments, it isn't necessary for him as the narrator to actually interject his commentary, but rather let the action of history speak for itself. I think the book does read easily and has good pacing, but these cliches do become a bit distracting - although certainly not fatal to the story.

By the way, Brownworth now has a new podcast out about the Normans, available on iTunes.

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More Lost to the West: The Forgotte... reviews
review by . September 20, 2009
The Byzantine Empire - and by extension, the Roman Empire- existed for 1,123 years and 18 days. Yet most of us know little about it other than he word "byzantine" being vaguely synonymous for highly intricate, complex, murky or devious dealings. In fact, the story of the Byzantine Empire is the telling of what we now know as Western Civilization. Beginning as the capital for the Eastern part of the Roman Empire, its primary city Constantinople became the center of a very vibrant society the preserved …
review by . September 23, 2009
The Roman Empire fell on Tuesday, May 29, 1453, when Mehmed II sacked Constantinople, and Constantine XI Dragases stripped off his imperial battle gear and died alone and unrecognized. If you dated the fall to September 5, 476, when Romulus Augustulus surrendered his crown and scepter to the Vandal Odoacer, you would be half right. That is indeed when the western half of the empire fell, setting off the so-called "Dark Ages" in earnest. But the eastern half lived on for another 1000 years, waxing …
see all Lost to the West: The Forgotte... reviews (3)
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Dominic J Nardi ()
Ranked #84
I am a recent law school grad with an interest in Southeast Asia legal issues. Unfortunately for my checkbook, ever since high school I have been addicted to good books. I have eclectic tastes, although … more
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About this book

Wiki

The once common idea that the lights went out on classical and Western civilization when Rome fell in 476 C.E. has long since been debunked, but Brownsworth weighs in to illustrate that the Roman Empire's center of power simply shifted to Constantinople. In a narrative by turns spellbinding and prosaic, Brownsworth marches us through centuries of history, beginning long before the fall of Rome, and introduces the successive rulers of Byzantium, from Christian emperors to Muslim sultans, detailing a culture he describes as both familiar and exotic. He follows religious, political and cultural change up through the Islamic conquest of 1453. Christian refugees fled Byzantium into Europe, taking with them their longstanding love of ancient culture and introducing Western Europe to Plato, Demosthenes, Xenophon, Aeschylus and Homer, fanning the flames of the renaissance of Hellenistic culture that had already begun in various parts of Europe. Although Brownsworth admirably illustrates the ways that the Byzantine Empire lives on even today, Judith Herrin'sByzantium: The Surprising Life of a Medieval Empireoffers a more compelling and thorough history of this empire. Maps.(Sept.)
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ISBN-10: 0307407950
ISBN-13: 978-0307407955
Author: Lars Brownworth
Genre: History
Publisher: Crown
First to Review

"An outstanding popular history that makes the Byzantine Empire accessible"
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