Santa brought me a bunch of books and I'm on a tear. Just finished this one:
It chronicles the collapse of Bronze Age Civilizations (Mycenean, Egyptian, Hittites, etc.) and the forces that may have triggered the collapse, natural disasters including climate change, financial meltdown due to breakdown of international trade, civil unrest, migration, and invasion, causing what's known as the First Dark Ages. These factors are strangely similar to what's going on today. At the end of the epilogue, the author recounts an exchange with a colleague, Adam Frank, that's a bit disquieting, reminiscent of Those who forget history are doomed to relive it,
When I told Adam Frank that we should be thankful that, unlike the Hittites, we are now advanced enough to understand what is happening and can take steps to fix things his rejoinder was short and direct: "But are we advanced enough to do anything with our understanding?" It remains to be seen whether we will have a good answer to his question.
I'll hold off on another history book about the history of Constantinople and go light next:
It chronicles the collapse of Bronze Age Civilizations (Mycenean, Egyptian, Hittites, etc.) and the forces that may have triggered the collapse, natural disasters including climate change, financial meltdown due to breakdown of international trade, civil unrest, migration, and invasion, causing what's known as the First Dark Ages. These factors are strangely similar to what's going on today. At the end of the epilogue, the author recounts an exchange with a colleague, Adam Frank, that's a bit disquieting, reminiscent of Those who forget history are doomed to relive it,
When I told Adam Frank that we should be thankful that, unlike the Hittites, we are now advanced enough to understand what is happening and can take steps to fix things his rejoinder was short and direct: "But are we advanced enough to do anything with our understanding?" It remains to be seen whether we will have a good answer to his question.
I'll hold off on another history book about the history of Constantinople and go light next:
