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90 of 92 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The Forgotten History of the Roman Empire, September 23, 2009
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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 and waning in influence from the Mediterranean to the Euphrates and from the Balkans to the Nile. It was finally eclipsed by the triumph of the Ottomans, never to rise again.
Lars Brownworth is not a professional historian, but he is a fantastic history-teller. "Lost to the West" is a portrait of the history of the eastern half of the empire from its founding by Constantine the Great to its demise under his namesake. The major "great men" (and women) as well as big events find a place in his fast-moving narrative: Constantine, Justinian, Belisarius, the Council of Nicea, the erection of Hagia Sophia, the Great Schism, and the centuries long battle with Islam.
Professional historians will probably find something to quibble with here and there. But if you know nothing about Byzantium (as the eastern empire came to be known), then Brownworth is the place to start. He includes a list of primary and secondary sources at the end of the book, as well as a chronological list of eastern emperors.
Highly recommended.
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29 of 29 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
A good introduction, but very general, September 27, 2009
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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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62 of 68 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
An outstanding popular history that makes the Byzantine Empire accessible, 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 Greek and Roman traditions while Western Europe slipped under the control of barbarians and into what we call the Dark Ages.
Lars Brownworth has written an absolutely stunning popular history of the Byzantine Empire. Remarkably, he covers in surprising detail more than a thousand years of growth, decline, war, peace, prosperity, poverty, devastation by plague, earthquakes, invading armies and internal sloth, corruption and incompetence in just over 300 pages. His writing style is relaxed and easy, yet packed with facts. There are occasions when things become confusing because he doesn't mention the years of certain event often enough and sometimes skips ahead by decades or even generation. By these are tiny criticisms to make in the context of his great achievement, making the history of the Byzantine Empire easily accessible.
I consider myself to be a history buff. Though my area of concentration is primarily 19th Century Europe and the United States, I consider myself well versed in global history. But I couldn't go more than a page or two in "Lost To The West" without learning something new to me. Without Byzantine standing in the way for centuries, the onslaught of Islam might not have been stopped. The Empire also kept alive the writings and learning of the Greeks and Romans which, ultimately, made their way to Western Europe as it shook off its lethargy.
While most of know the names of at least a few Roman Emperors, few of us know much, if anything at all, about the rulers of the Byzantine Empire, save perhaps for Constantine himself. Brownworth tells us of many8 of the 88 Byzantine emperors, a few of whom were worthy beyond measure and many who were incompetent and damaged the Empire and its citizens.
In fact, Brownworth focuses on the Emperors, their circumstances and actions. Relatively little detail is provided beyond this, about the people and their lives. He provides enough to give you the flavor of ordinary life here and there and in this way keeps his history brief. What he does say is enough to depict the cruelty of the invaders from the east and the vagaries of life in that age: brutal death or being sold into slavery. In our age of political correctness, we are rarely informed that the invading culture enslaved entire populations for more than a thousand years, well into the 20th Century.
One recurrent theme is the tension between the Roman and Orthodox Churches. It is fascinating to see how the Pope withheld aid from the Eastern Empire until an agreement to end the schism was reached - and then breached the agreement.
Brownworth devotes significant space to describing the repeated rebirths and flowering of Byzantine art and culture. In a way, the lack of photographs and illustrations of the art and architecture he describes is regrettable, but the truth is that much Byzantine art was destroyed or looted.
Ultimately Constantinople, shielded by its mighty walls for more than a millennia, succumbed to Muslim attackers and the Byzantine Empire was essentially extinct.
Brownworth successfully argues that the Byzantine Empire protected Western Europe until barbarism waned and the retrieved Greek and Roman masterworks opened the eyes of the Europeans and stoked the fires of the Renaissance. Without Byzantine to protect it, Europe would have been overrun by the Islam tide. It is a convincing argument.
Overall, Brownworth has written superb popular history. He makes the Byzantine Empire readily accessible. It is a journey well worth taking.
Jerry
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