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Charles Freeman’s Followers (123)
2,036 books
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Charles Freeman
Goodreads Author
Born
in England, The United Kingdom
Genre
Member Since
October 2009
More books by Charles Freeman…
Charles’s Recent Updates
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Charles Freeman
made a comment on
Bryan Gardner’s review
of
The Children of Athena. Greek Intellectuals in the Age of Rome: 250 BC - 400 AD
"
Thanks for the good rating, Bryan. I am glad you enjoyed the book. It was difficult to do all the research on my subjects and I was surprised how much
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Charles Freeman
made a comment on
Chadwick Ciocci’s review
of
The Children of Athena. Greek Intellectuals in the Age of Rome: 250 BC - 400 AD
"
Thanks for the review, Chadwick. It needed a lot of research to find all the details of my subjects. Good reading . Charles Freeman
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Charles Freeman
liked
Phillip Sawyer's review
of
The Reopening of the Western Mind: The Resurgence of Intellectual Life from the End of Antiquity to the Dawn of theEnlightenment:
"Marvelous account of the struggle to bring back thought and reason in the centuries after the Fall of Rome. Highly recommended! At 803 pages it is a big history and literally heavy reading!"
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Charles Freeman
made a comment on
Phillip Sawyer’s review
of
The Reopening of the Western Mind: The Resurgence of Intellectual Life from the End of Antiquity to the Dawn of theEnlightenment
"
Thanks for the review, Phillip. I am so glad you enjoyed the book. It has not sold well, perhaps it is too heavy (!) in the sumptuous edition that Kno
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Charles Freeman
made a comment on
Arianne X’s review
of
The Reopening of the Western Mind: The Resurgence of Intellectual Life from the End of Antiquity to the Dawn of theEnlightenment
"
Thanks for your perceptive review, Arianne. It is a pity that the book has not sold well- perhaps too heavy! In the States there is not even a paperba
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Lovely review, Arianne. Needs rereading to get the depth of it. Terrifying parallels with Trump especially the Christian support.
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Charles Freeman
is now following Chuck_Les's reviews
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Charles Freeman
and
4 other people
liked
Lady Wesley's review
of
The Reopening of the Western Mind: The Resurgence of Intellectual Life from the End of Antiquity to the Dawn of theEnlightenment:
" Review of the audiobook narrated by Mark Bramhall
This is a magnificent book. The subtitle tells it all: “The Resurgence of Intellectual Life from the End of Antiquity to the Dawn of the Enlightenment.” Perhaps I first should have read this author’s " Read more of this review » |
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Charles Freeman
and
10 other people
liked
Arianne X's review
of
The Age of Genius: The Seventeenth Century and the Birth of the Modern Mind:
"The Most Amusing Irony of the Modern World
The epistemological privilege granted to modern science and the scientific method from the seventeen century onward has not surpassed other non-scientific forms of 'knowledge' and ways of 'thinking'. In an am" Read more of this review » |
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Charles Freeman
wants to read
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“It was a mark of Constantine's political genius and flexibility that he realized it was better to utilize a religion(Christianity) that already had a well-established structure of authority as a prop to the imperial regime rather than exclude it as a hindrance.”
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“In his play Antigone, Sophocles summed it up: Wonders are many and none more wonderful than man . . . In the meshes of his woven nets, cunning of mind, ingenious man . . . He snares the lighthearted birds and the tribes of savage beasts, and the creatures of the deep seas . . . He puts the halter round the horse’s neck And rings the nostrils of the angry bull. He has devised himself a shelter against the rigours of frost and the pelting rains. Speech and science he has taught himself, and artfully formed laws for harmonious civic life . . . Only against death he fights in vain. But clear intelligence—a force beyond measure— moves to work both good and ill . . . When he obeys the laws and honors justice, the city stands proud . . . But man swerves from side to side, and when the laws are broken, and set at naught, he is like a person without a city, beyond human boundary, a horror, a pollution to be avoided.29 The”
― The Closing of the Western Mind: The Rise of Faith & the Fall of Reason
― The Closing of the Western Mind: The Rise of Faith & the Fall of Reason
“150 years later, Constantinople suffers an even worse fate. The emperor Justinian, faced with similar violence, the Nika revolt of 532, was encouraged by his wife, Theodora, to send in troops. Between 30,000 and 50,000 citizens are believed to have been massacred. It was the arbitrary exercise of this absolute power that was most unsettling. The fact that Justinian supposed himself to be a quintessentially Christian monarch made no difference. It was, after all, fully accepted that God might act punitively, and there were dozens of Old Testament texts to back the point. So why should his representative on earth be different? In any case, as the contemporary historian proposes, the king did not see it as murder, as the victims did not share his beliefs.”
― The Closing Of The Western Mind: The Rise of Faith and the Fall of Reason by Charles Freeman
― The Closing Of The Western Mind: The Rise of Faith and the Fall of Reason by Charles Freeman
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