To answer in part, I credit Victor Davis Hanson’s ‘Who Killed Homer’ and 'Carnage and Culture,' as well as Os Guinness’s ‘A Free People’s Suicide’ and ‘The Magna Carta of Humanity.’ These have caused me to value more highly original source material by those Greeks and Romans credited for so much of Western Civilization.īy all accounts, Polybius, Plutarch, and Cicero have been hugely important to the development of Western thought, and the unfolding of World History accordingly, as the West has achieved so much dominance on a global scale.įor my part, I am trying to understand what to do about the ongoing decline of the West generally, and the United States of America in particular. You may be wondering why, though, besides encouragement from my family and friends, this seems good to me. This will take a while, then, but I will be sure to keep you updated as I go, so you can benefit as well. That is a mercy, not least because 'Lives' will be the single largest title I have ever taken up, with Audible showing the copy I’ve just bought at 83 hours and 11 minutes long. He doesn't just subject his readers to dry recitations of names and dates without effect. I get this favorable impression, for instance, that Plutarch places a special emphasis both on telling stories with morals as well as explaining the morals to the stories he tells. From what I’ve heard from them, 'Lives' is enriching stuff. My wife is also encouraging me in this, since our kids study Plutarch as part of our homeschooling curriculum. Now I remember how my friend Joseph Crampton recommended I dig into Plutarch’s ‘Parallel Lives of the Noble Greeks and Romans’ next, and that title is calling my name. I am almost through ‘The Histories’ by Polybius, and hope to wrap up the last few hours today.
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