Goodreads: Lost to the West

Lost to the West: The Forgotten Byzantine Empire that rescued Western Civilization
Lars Brownworth

I grabbed this book years ago because I loved his podcasts. The book is just as fantastic. It's easy to read, digestible and Brownworth writes in a style that makes the history enjoyable to read. While this isn't an exhaustive study of the history of the thousand years of Byzantine history, its 300 pages are surprisingly chock full of information.

I read a few of the reviews on the book and found that most people generally seem to agree with me. The few negative reviews I read (why do I always read the negative reviews of books I like?) are silly in their criticism. They attack Brownworth for being not academic enough or for focusing too much on the Christian aspect of the Empire. These attacks stem from either an elitism that often insulates the people stuck in their ivory towers who have lost touch with people that exist outside of academia or those who are looking for any way to disagree with something Christian. I also am tired of hearing complaints about mentioning that Christopher Columbus discovered America. He did discover the new world and no amount of revisionist history will ever change that. Was what he discovered a barren wasteland? Of course not. But it was the Columbus voyages that forever changed the world. Do you want to argue over whether or not the pros outweigh the cons because of Columbus' voyages? There's something that you can have mixed feelings on. But, this book isn't about Columbus and I really shouldn't mention it; but, I'm growing tired of the constant wailing and whining about the whole Columbus thing. It happened. It changed the world as we know it. Yes, others came to the Western Hemisphere before Columbus, but it was his voyages that ushered in a new age, not the Vikings and not the pre-Columbian peoples. Besides that, if it hadn't been Columbus, the people whining about him would be arguing the same nonsense to fit their personal feelings by decrying the other Western European who would have taken Columbus' spot. For those complaining that the book isn't scholarly enough I suggest you go grab a text book; or, better yet, spend a lifetime learning Latin, Greek and Arabic and pick up only primary sources and leave the rest of us uneducated schmucks to enjoy our pop history. I'll end my rant there and move back to the book.

Some of the Emperors are well known: Justinian, Alexius, Theodosius, Constantine the Great, etc. Those parts I enjoyed; but, it was the lesser well known ones I found the most fascinating. I really enjoyed the sections covering the Isaurian, Nicephorus and Macedonian sections of the book. I found the probably apocryphal account of Syrian emir Sayf escaping the Byzantines by scattering gold coins behind him as he fled back to Aleppo. These little, dubious nuggets tell us more about history than verifiable, archeological facts as they speak to what the people believed at the time. Myths often contain as much truth as do bones dug up out of the ground when concerning civilizations.

After Rome, Istanbul has been my biggest dream destination to visit. This book reinforced that hope. It also drew my attention to Mount Athos: "Set on the stunningly beautiful Athonite peninsula, these twenty monasteries form an autonomous community- and they still fly the eagle flag of Byzantium". It sounds like a place of living history and I desperately want to visit now.

I highly recommend this book for anyone who has an interest in history, unless you're a scholar and can read Latin, Greek and Arabic or you have an axe to grind. In that case, read something else and write a better book.