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kayleem93's review against another edition
1.0
DNF at 150. If I had wanted a book about the modern christian church's comments on things I would have bought one. I don't.I wanted a book on Roman and Greece culture not to have to read the word Christianity a hundred times. I don't like books misrepresenting themselves that's all hence I have quit the book.
librarianonparade's review against another edition
3.0
Whilst I was hoping for slightly more intellectual rigour in this book, it was an entertaining enough read. Mount certainly draws enough parallels between modern and classical life for his argument to be believed: the similarities in the 'cult of the body', for example, the attention given to celebrities, the attitudes towards food and sex and entertainment.
I can well believe that to a very real extent society has come full circle and recaptured or rediscovered a lot of the attitudes and beliefs of classical life. There is a reason the Dark Ages was called thus, and it is not simply a lack of evidence and surviving documentation for the period - a lot of the knowledge that circulated in the Greek and Roman times was lost. Steam power, for example, was first invented in the Greek period; the Roman invention of indoor plumbing, underfloor heating, aqueducts were all lost for centuries.
Perhaps a far better book would be one which investigates just why so much was lost in the intervening years - it cannot solely be down to religion, a topic which Mount seems to be spend a little too much time on, without coming to any kind of concrete conclusion. Why did it take us so long to rediscover the societal norms and practices which the Greeks and Romans took for granted? Perhaps the real issue is not why we are coming full circle now, but what took us long in the first place?
I can well believe that to a very real extent society has come full circle and recaptured or rediscovered a lot of the attitudes and beliefs of classical life. There is a reason the Dark Ages was called thus, and it is not simply a lack of evidence and surviving documentation for the period - a lot of the knowledge that circulated in the Greek and Roman times was lost. Steam power, for example, was first invented in the Greek period; the Roman invention of indoor plumbing, underfloor heating, aqueducts were all lost for centuries.
Perhaps a far better book would be one which investigates just why so much was lost in the intervening years - it cannot solely be down to religion, a topic which Mount seems to be spend a little too much time on, without coming to any kind of concrete conclusion. Why did it take us so long to rediscover the societal norms and practices which the Greeks and Romans took for granted? Perhaps the real issue is not why we are coming full circle now, but what took us long in the first place?
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