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Fistful of Salt

Overall
3 out of 5 stars
Performance
4 out of 5 stars
Story
4 out of 5 stars

Reviewed: 09-28-24

Peter Heather manages to bring certain illuminating themes to the fore, to make sense of the development of Christianity: post-Constantine, the system of incentives of the empire facilitated the conversion of high status individuals.

The centrality of the Roman church was something developed over the long term, with the ebbs and flows of secular power influencing it.

But overall, even though he is forced to admit the power of faith and piety in many cases, he can’t help himself from defaulting to ridiculous Reddit atheist positions, which just can’t fathom how the power of faith to shape the soul is the main causal factor (without denying that material causes matter too)

Even in the context of small business, trying to enforce a simple policy change involves repeated emphasis at the very least: without buy in from the employees, simple forced changes do not work.
Yet Heather wants us to believe that on the scale of the entire Europe, Christianity developed without the power of faith as the main factor.
His arguments and evidence do not justify that conclusion.

He provided a meal with excellent ingredients and cooking—but added a fistful of salt at the end, spoiling the meal.

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Fall Of Empire is Not Mysterious

Overall
5 out of 5 stars
Performance
5 out of 5 stars
Story
5 out of 5 stars

Reviewed: 09-10-24

While all ancient history is full of unknowns and puzzles—and this one is no exception—this book convinced me that in broad outlines, the Fall of Rome is not really that mysterious.

A few exogenous shocks, foreign armed forces on Rome’s territory, gradual loss of imperial income and consequently the inability to deal with any big crisis, let alone multiple ones.

This book makes the Fall or Rome extremely clear, and the puzzles that necessarily remain are in the end relatively minor compared to the overall picture.

Highly recommended.

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Interesting but Flawed

Overall
4 out of 5 stars
Performance
5 out of 5 stars
Story
4 out of 5 stars

Reviewed: 04-08-24

The Fugger story is interesting and it’s worth the listen.

However, the book repeats several historical myths: the Rothschild family did NOT make their fortune by knowing faster than others about Waterloo. That’s a myth. They made their fortune initially by contraband, breaking restrictions imposed by Napoleon. Waterloo was actually bad for their business.

Similarly, Luther likely did NOT say “Here I stand, I can do no other.”

So the book is not one with deep riguros research; so it could contain myths.

But you can check those in further reading. The book is still informative and entertaining in parts.

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Excellent!!

Overall
5 out of 5 stars
Performance
5 out of 5 stars
Story
5 out of 5 stars

Reviewed: 09-21-23

You’ll understand the origin of the modern world system from someone who understands and loves his material — and who clearly knows how to make it accessible and entertaining.

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Excellent Guide for Deeper Study

Overall
5 out of 5 stars
Performance
5 out of 5 stars
Story
5 out of 5 stars

Reviewed: 02-22-23

It is extremely hard to do a summary of 3000 years of evolution of a religion— but this book does a great job.

It can’t possibly do justice to every topic it touches—but the reader has plenty of guidance to study on his own.

As for bias, yes, you sometimes hear the limp wristed, somewhat pathetic ultra liberal bias of a lapsed believer that is so common these days. But it is easy to ignore and appreciate the depiction of the complex tapestry of historical Christianity.

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