Just finished a 24 lecture series on DVD about the Byzantine Empire, the Christian ad Greek-speaking continuation of the Roman Empire, which lasted until the Muslim project of imperialism and colonialism --how do you think The Muslim World got to be that way?-- took down Constantinople in 1453. From Constantine the Great to Constantine XI, over a thousand years.
But the series makes clear the massive ups and down and vagaries of this empire. Especially how a great leadership could restore and even expand it, and how easily and quickly bad leadership could squander and worsen it. And how internal divisions could be as deadly as outside enemies.
Both rises and declines in very brief spans of time.
Felt eerily familiar. The USA in 1962. The USA in 2012.
But the series makes clear the massive ups and down and vagaries of this empire. Especially how a great leadership could restore and even expand it, and how easily and quickly bad leadership could squander and worsen it. And how internal divisions could be as deadly as outside enemies.
Both rises and declines in very brief spans of time.
Felt eerily familiar. The USA in 1962. The USA in 2012.
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