Tell me if you think this sounds familiar: in its latter years (500-700 ace), the roman empire faced a formidable challenge from two devastating environmental forces — dramatic climate change and massive epidemic. As mark twain is supposed to have said, “history doesn’t repeat itself, but it often rhymes.” During our own bout of climate … Continue reading Resilience in the Face of Climate Change and Epidemic: Ancient Rome and Today’s America
This post is a commentary on historian Walter Scheidel’s book, Escape from Rome. It’s a stunningly original analysis of a topic that has long fascinated scholars like me: how did Europe come to create the modern world? His answer is this: Europe became the cauldron of modernity and the dominant power in the world because … Continue reading How the Fall of Empire Spurred the Rise of Modernity — and Parallels with the Rise of US Higher Ed
Today I want to explore an interesting case of counterfactual history. What would have happened if Napoleon Bonaparte had won in 1815 at the Battle of Waterloo? What consequences might have followed for Europe in the next two centuries? That he might have succeeded is not mere fantasy. According to the victor, Lord Wellington, the … Continue reading What if Napoleon Had Won at Waterloo?
What If Napoleon Had Won at Waterloo Today I want to explore an interesting case of counterfactual history. What would have happened if Napoleon Bonaparte had won in 1815 at the Battle of Waterloo? What consequences might have followed for Europe in the next two centuries? That he might have succeeded is not mere fantasy. … Continue reading What If Napoleon Had Won at Waterloo
This post is a piece by Matt Yglesias that raises an interesting question. Maybe the Habsburg's Austro-Hungarian empire was not just one of the dead-on-its-feet empires -- along with the Ottoman and Russian empires -- that were finally put of its misery by World War I. His argument is two-fold. In part he's saying that … Continue reading Matt Yglegias — The Habsburgs Were on to Something
This post is a reflection on the peculiar history and social structure of imperial Venice, drawing on a 2013 book by Garry Wills, Venice: Lion City -- The Religion of Empire. On the surface of it, Venice was the unlikely hub of an empire. It was a city-state with a small population and no sizeable … Continue reading Garry Wills on the History of the Venetian Empire
This post is about, of all things, the Byzantine Empire. Unlike its western counterpart, what is usually called the Roman Empire, it has received little respect over the years. Even the name is a calumny (drawn from the name of the original Greek city of Byzantium that later became the empire's capital, Constantinople), which was … Continue reading The Triumph and Tragedy of the Byzantine Empire — How It Preserved the West and Devastated the East
Here's a challenge to any writer. How do you write a book about someone famous who never did anything? Craig Brown found an answer with his book, Nine-Nine Glimpses of Princess Margaret. In this book, he provides not a biography but a set of impressions of Queen Elizabeth's younger sister as they were recounted by … Continue reading Craig Brown – Ninety-Nine Glimpses of Princess Margaret
In episode 5 of The Crown's season 4, a desperate out-of-work painter named Michael Fagan breaks into Buckingham Palace, enters the queen's bedroom, sits on the foot of her bed, and asks her for a cigarette. "Filthy habit," she replies. "Yes, I know, I'm trying to quit," he says. Then he gets down to business, … Continue reading “The Crown” and the Long Tradition of Petitioning the Monarch for Redress of Grievances
This post is a reflection on the role that the Ottoman Empire played in shaping the modern world. It draws on a new book by Alan Mikhail, God's Shadow: Sultan Selim, His Ottoman Empire, and the Making of the Modern World. The Ottomans are the Rodney Dangerfields of empires: They don't get no respect. If … Continue reading Mikhail — How the Ottomans Shaped the Modern World
David Labaree on Schooling, History, and Writing 