Charles Freeman

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Charles Freeman

Goodreads Author


Born
in England, The United Kingdom
Genre

Member Since
October 2009


Charles Freeman is a freelance academic historian with wide interests in the history of European culture and thought. He is the author of the highly acclaimed Egypt, Greece and Rome, Civilizations of the Ancient Mediterranean. He has followed this up with The Greek Achievement (Penguin 1999), The Legacy of Ancient Egypt (Facts on File, 1997) and The Closing of the Western Mind, a study of the relationship between Greek philosophy and Christianity in the fourth century and beyond. His The Horses of St. Mark’s (Little Brown, 2004) is a study of these famous works of art in their historical contexts over the centuries. In 2003, Charles Freeman was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts.

Average rating: 4.02 · 4,583 ratings · 440 reviews · 64 distinct worksSimilar authors
The Closing of the Western ...

4.06 avg rating — 2,208 ratings — published 2002 — 22 editions
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Egypt, Greece and Rome: Civ...

4.12 avg rating — 843 ratings — published 1996 — 33 editions
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A. D. 381: Heretics, Pagans...

3.90 avg rating — 417 ratings — published 2008 — 14 editions
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A New History of Early Chri...

3.89 avg rating — 256 ratings — published 2009 — 10 editions
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The Greek Achievement: The ...

3.98 avg rating — 218 ratings — published 1999 — 15 editions
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Holy Bones, Holy Dust: How ...

3.78 avg rating — 158 ratings — published 2011 — 14 editions
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The Reopening of the Wester...

4.22 avg rating — 140 ratings
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The Children of Athena. Gre...

really liked it 4.00 avg rating — 77 ratings6 editions
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The Horses of St Mark's: A ...

3.58 avg rating — 71 ratings — published 2004 — 13 editions
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The Rise of the Nazis

really liked it 4.00 avg rating — 26 ratings — published 1998 — 17 editions
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More books by Charles Freeman…

Charles’s Recent Updates

The Children of Athena. Greek Intellectuals in the Age of Rome by Charles Freeman
" 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 ...more "
The Children of Athena. Greek Intellectuals in the Age of Rome by Charles Freeman
" Thanks for the review, Chadwick. It needed a lot of research to find all the details of my subjects. Good reading . Charles Freeman "
The Reopening of the Western Mind by Charles Freeman
"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!"
The Reopening of the Western Mind by Charles Freeman
" 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 ...more "
The Reopening of the Western Mind by Charles Freeman
" 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 ...more "
The Hitler Years by Frank McDonough
" Lovely review, Arianne. Needs rereading to get the depth of it. Terrifying parallels with Trump especially the Christian support. "
Charles Freeman is now following Chuck_Les's reviews
The Reopening of the Western Mind by Charles Freeman
" 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 »
The Age of Genius by A.C. Grayling
"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 »
Charles Freeman wants to read
Fluke by Brian Klaas
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Quotes by Charles Freeman  (?)
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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.”
Charles Freeman

“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”
Charles Freeman, The Closing of the Western Mind: The Rise of Faith & the Fall of Reason

“Theological contemplation contemplates through a light infused by God, but the philosopher contemplates through an acquired disposition of wisdom.’ The two philosophies were linked, however, in that Albert believed that when God acted he did not do so through sudden unnatural interventions but through the observable causation of natural events.”
Charles Freeman, The Reopening of the Western Mind: The Resurgence of Intellectual Life from the End of Antiquity to the Dawn of theEnlightenment

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