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Great historical book without reading a textbook.

What an incredible story.

I am enjoying Gate’s clarity in writing and his use of diagrams, including lists.

Reading about the Ming and then the Yuan Dynasty. The first started a Civil Service for priorities in jobs. The second dynasty destroyed that system.

Abigail Adams asked her husband to send her as many pins for pinning fabric together prior to sewing stitches. John Adams resided in France during the American Revolution was happy to oblige. When the huge box of pins arrived in Braintree, MA, it was accidentally sent to Mrs. Samuel Adams. An understandable mix up.

The Author of “The God of Small Things.”

Great so far!

Great opening!

Rome’s great achievement was turning conquest into administration. Roads, law, taxation, citizenship and local government allowed an enormous collection of peoples to function within one political system.

There’s an interesting echo with the ancient China material you’ve been studying: both Rome and Qin/Han China discovered that lasting empire depends less upon winning territory than upon organizing it.

But victory creates a paradox that becomes one of Durant’s central themes:

Rome conquered the world, but the conquest changed Rome.

She is really there in the patrol car and going on calls.

But victory creates a paradox that becomes one of Durant’s central themes:

Rome conquered the world, but the conquest changed Rome.

Rome steadily expands throughout Italy and then collides with Carthage. The great dramatic figure is Hannibal, who crosses the Alps and nearly destroys Rome, especially at Cannae, but Rome survives.

Eventually Scipio Africanus defeats Hannibal, and Carthage is later destroyed. Rome then conquers Greece and much of the eastern Mediterranean.

The early Roman Republic is dominated by conflict between patricians and plebeians. Gradually the lower classes win political rights, but Rome remains an aristocratic society. Durant admires many of the old Roman virtues—discipline, courage, loyalty, simplicity—but stresses that they were accompanied by harshness, slavery, and relentless warfare.

Rome conquers the Mediterranean

So far…

Durant begins with Italy before Rome, especially the Etruscans, whose religion, engineering, political customs, gladiatorial practices, and artistic traditions influenced early Roman civilization. Rome itself develops as a stern agricultural society built around the family, property, military discipline, religion, and civic duty.

Oh to be Cleopatra! Both boyfriends, Caesar and
Marcus Anthony were under her spell.

The basic idea

Doyle imagines that a “magic door” can transport us into the worlds of great books. He argues that reading is not merely an educational activity: it is a way of escaping ordinary life and enlarging our experience.

* Shakespeare and the English classics
* Walter Scott and historical fiction
* poetry and poets
* adventure and romance
* biography and history
* writers such as Dumas and Stevenson

Have you heard of Ambrose Pierce?

McCauley’s Essays

“I never could quite enjoy Nathaniel Hawthorne.”

Hitler fantizisede that the Americans would r with them? How blacks were treated; how we were treating the CHINESE AND THE American Indians treatment!

Soon the Catholics, Conservatives, and ———soon had the (horse’s) bit in their mouths.

Believe, obey and fight

Enjoying the narrative of a woman in her 30s enrolling in the Police Academy Reserves—a voluntary organization.