Customer Reviews

The First Century: Emperors, Gods and Everyman

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This book is wonderfully written, a pleasure to read. I give it five stars even though it is somewhat lop-sided: although it claims to be a history of Rome, China, and Judea in the first century, the author shows a decidedly western bias. Counting the sections, I see 14 on Rome, 11 on Judea, and only 7 on China. The author seems more sure-footed, and more excited, when describing Rome.

However, overall I found this a great read, enough so that it inspired to get some of the authors other books.

This book is written with style and some wit, bringing long dead shakers & movers to life. Very entertaining with some clever insights from the author who also presents historical figures with personalities (accurately or not - it does'nt matter), opinions etc.. Bloody good read.

If you have ever wondered about the events that shaped leaders and everyman, thousands of years ago, this is an entertaining read, considering it is non-fiction. The real life events are presented in a way that brings characters into stories that otherwise would seem to be so long ago and nameless.

A great line was "At the dawn of the first century, the empire over which Augustus ruled,-with the aid of only a rudimentary civil service-encompassed nearly eighty million people and ranged across ten thousand miles of frontier..."

A good read for the context getting of where we came from to get where we are today as peoples on this globe.

The book is awesome and has whet my appetite for more history. At first I did not like the divided history approach of highlighting Rome, Judea and China in various chapters but after reading through the book it did seem to motivate one to read through to get to the next continuation (kind of like a cliff hanger). This tended to highlight more of Rome & Judea and only a small amount of China.

The late historian Barbara Tuchman wrote a wonderful book called "A Distant Mirror" about the calamitous 14th century. It is absolutely spell-binding for history enthusiasts. While Klingaman's book is not quite as well written, it does a remarkable job of presenting the world-shattering changes that took place during the First Century A.D. (or C.E. if you prefer). As a Christian of the Episcopalian stripe, I enjoyed the "context" it provides for understanding the time of Jesus. I'd recommend it to anyone with an interest in the subject. Bring along your thinking cap because it's very thought provoking!

Klingaman is an engaging writer. But too much fancy and outright error mar his history. It comes perilously close to being little more than a historical novel. I cannot agree with the reviewer who said it does not matter if what he wrote is untrue. One of his more bizarre statements is that Jesus said women must become men to enter the kingdom of heaven (p.175). He apparently got this from one of the "pagan Gospels". No scholar worth his salt would use such a discreditted source and present its ravings as historical fact.

Klingaman presents certain views in Christianity oversimplied, as if they represent the views of all, even in such controversial areas as the identity of the beast of Revelation. Though he identifies the beast as Rome (page 368), he seems to think it is political Rome, missing the apostate religious Rome more importantly identified by others (e.g. by William Tyndale:The Obedience of a Christian Man (Penguin Classics)). Klingaman does not even mention that other views exist, let alone explore them. Again, no true scholar would do this because it is so misleading. What Klingaman offers as fact are no better than jejune opinions at best, and are dishonest at worst.

Another oddity is his references to quoted sources at the end of the book. He gives author names, but does not give the full titles.

Seeing how many problems there are in Klingaman's presentation of events in Jerusalem in the first century, which I know something about, it is difficult to trust his histories of Rome and China. Too bad. I was hoping for a good history book.