Dominion
The Making of the Western Mind
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4.4 • 24 Ratings
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- $12.99
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- $12.99
Publisher Description
The Sunday Times bestseller, with a new introduction by Nassim Nicholas Taleb
'If great books encourage you to look at the world in an entirely new way, then Dominion is a very great book indeed' Dominic Sandbrook, Sunday Times History Book of the Year
'Terrific: bold, ambitious and passionate' Peter Frankopan
Dominion tells the epic story of how those in the West came to be what they are, and why they think the way they do. Ranging from Moses to Merkel, from Babylon to Beverley Hills, from the emergence of secularism to the abolition of slavery, it explores why, in a society that has become increasingly doubtful of religion's claims, so many of its instincts remain irredeemably Christian. Christianity's enduring impact is not confined to churches. It can be seen everywhere in the West: in science, in secularism, in gay rights, even in atheism. It is - to coin a phrase - the greatest story ever told.
PRAISE FOR DOMINION
'A masterpiece of scholarship and storytelling' John Gray, New Statesman
'Filled with vivid portraits, gruesome deaths and moral debates... Holland has all the talents of an accomplished novelist' Terry Eagleton, Guardian
'This extraordinary book is vintage Tom Holland: history boldly and elegantly retold' Diarmaid MacCulloch
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Novelist, playwright, and historian Holland (Rubicon), whose scholarly pursuits include Greek, Islamic, and Roman history, brings all of that to bear in this cultural history of how "a cult inspired by the execution of an obscure criminal in a long-vanquished empire came to exercise such a transformative and enduring influence on the world." In the period stretching from pre-Christian Athens in 479 BCE, when the Persian Artayctes lost his battle with the Athenians, to Germany in 2015, when Angela Merkel had an emotional encounter with a teenage Palestinian girl, Holland traces Christendom's philosophical, ethical, political, and even linguistic legacies in the West. Sophocles and Aristotle appear, as do Solomon and Moses, who "brought something without parallel: legislation directly authored by a god." Luke writes, so does Muhammad, and Luther publishes his 95 theses; later Holland weaves in Voltaire, Darwin, and even de Sade. He does not lose sight of political events Charlemagne reigns, Columbus sails, the West fights WWI, and Hitler rises to power. He also wrestles with the theological disputes, inconsistencies, and recurring questions within Christianity, and the faith's intertwined but often hostile relationship with Judaism and Jews. Entertaining is too light a term and instructive is too heavy a term for a rich work that is enjoyably both.
Customer Reviews
Entertaining and thought provoking
The author is an English historian, novelist, and broadcaster. He got a double first in English and Latin at Cambridge then moved to Oxford to do a PhD on Lord Byron, but chucked it in to write historical vampire stories and work for BBC where he adapted Herodotus, Homer, Thucydides and Virgil for Radio 4. He has written a number of highly praised works of history including Rubicon (2003), Persian Fire (2005) and Millennium (2008), and Dynasty (2015). (Ancient history is his thing: Rome and the Persians especially).
Mr H was raised C of E by his Mum, “gave all that up” in his teens, then found himself reconsidering Christianity in middle age in the light of his various historical endeavours. I’m not sure whether he’s going to church again, but this book is the outcome of an epiphany of sorts he appears to have had regarding the influence of Christianity on Western civilisation. Given Mr H’s track record, it comes as no surprise that he deals most convincingly with the ancient world. However, even there, he picks and chooses his facts. e.g. the influence of Christianity over and above, say, Greco-Roman culture more generally. As he proceeds down the years, this tendency increases. Various assertions (one about St Augustine comes to mind) owe more to the author’s desire to consolidate his hypothesis than to documentary supporting evidence. Ditto selective omissions.
However, Mr H writes engagingly with good pace, a hangover from his days as a novelist perhaps, and makes some interesting arguments in support of his central thesis.
Bottom line: Entertaining and thought provoking. Historically accurate, not so much.