Lost to the West: The Forgotten Byzantine Empire That Rescued Western Civilization Paperback – June 1, 2010

Avoiding too much detail the author provides a fairly comprehensive look at the Eastern Roman, or Byzantine, empire. Enough to interest the general reader, the overview here probably won't satisfy the Byzantine history buff.

My interest in the Byzantine Empire was piqued by the 11th Century chronicles of Michael Psellus (see the review in a previous post), so I ordered this relatively short, recent history of the Empire’s history from the founding of Constantinople by the eponymous Illyrian badass and ardent Christian convert, Constantine the Great, to the fall of the city in 1453, her mighty walls shattered by enormous Ottoman cannon. This is a lot of material to cover and the author does so briskly while also being careful to be thorough and accurately sourced. The back jacket of the book states that Mr. Brownworth is a former high school history teacher, but he shows as much flair for writing popular, accessible history as many other, more highly accredited authors.Like all empires from Rome onward, there is a large focus in the book on the Byzantine emperors and their personalities, an unavoidable consequence of studying any autocracy where everything (at least supposedly) turns on the word of just one man. A parade of characters passes down through the long ages, some outstanding, many contemptible, and a great deal utterly mediocre. Brownsworth makes the interesting point that as long as an emperor was strong and knew how to organize the empire’s resources (with special emphasis on the broad, fertile Anatolian plain), the Byzantines flourished or, at least, held their own. This was a remarkable feat in light of the constant series of threats posed to the empire over centuries, beset from all sides, Persians, Slavs, Bulgars, Crusaders, Arabs, and worst of all and finally, the Ottoman Turks. It was only when the Byzantines were deprived of Anatolia by the Turks that the empire truly began to falter and at last fail.The author notes that while Western Europe was plunged into illiteracy and Frankish kings lived little better than peasants, learning and luxury still flourished in Constantinople and the empire’s other great cities. He points out that for centuries the Byzantine Empire acted as a buffer for Western Europe, a bulwark between the weak, disorganized feudal realms and the rampant forces of Islam. Much learning was gained by the West from the Byzantines, especially after the fall of Constantinople when many Greek scholars fled to Italy seeking patronage from the Pope among others. This history does a valuable service in filling in a large gap in the general picture of medieval European history.I think the most valuable thing to be gained from this book is a sense of the remarkable strength of the Byzantine polity. Located in the very cockpit of empire, prone to invasion by land and sea from all directions, attacked by powerful enemies almost from the beginning, and riven by dissension (religious and otherwise), treachery, and disloyalty, Constantinople and its empire still managed to somehow persist in a distinctly recognizable form for over a thousand years. And when the end came, the last emperor (also named Constantine) died fighting in the breached walls for his city and his people, a true medieval paladin.I recommend this book to fans of medieval history and to anyone interested in a good account of a very strange and alien, long passed civilization and culture whose echoes still loudly sound today.

As the continuation of the Roman Empire, even as the Greek language mostly replaced Latin, Byzantium had a long, proud history, even in its own years from about 400 AD to 1453 and its final collapse to Muslim invaders who were intent on taking it for centuries. I've been interested in this story since I wrote a (very good!) college paper on it long ago. It's heroic tale, with many venal characters. I especially value this realm for the way Christianity grew up within its protection, from Italy all the way around to what is now Libya, especially nurturing the Holy Lands of the Levant. I view it as an historical tragedy that Byzantium succumbed so steadily, albeit gradually, to the Mohammedan invasions, enabled as they were by the lack of seriousness and foresight of Byzantine leaders.Byzantine history will someday be presented in detail as the world's longest, most complicated ("byzantine'), extraordinary and all true soap opera. There are many lessons to learn from its rule, successes & failures that still apply.This book tells it well with a very manageable style and unavoidably condensed events and personae. It is easy reading, but with informative footnotes. There is a bit of duplication here and there, but overall this is a book worth embracing and keeping in one's library thereafter.

Lars Brownworth has given us an excellent general account of the Byzantine Empire stretching from it's foundations at the permanent division of the Roman Empire under Diocletian and the city's founding by Constantine all the way to the final taking of the city by the Muslim Turks.I have to say that the author did a really good job of presenting the reader with the essentials of the history of Byzantium. This book is meant to present the reader with the major periods, rulers, conflicts, religious concepts and architecture of what we know as the Eastern Roman Empire. The author certainly hits the "high points" well without burdening the general reader with lists of emperors, battles and patriarchs.This is a book written for the general reader unacquainted with the later Roman Empire in the east and how it continued to survive and even thrive for a millennium after Rome itself "fell" and the last western emperor was removed from the throne. There's so much that the author covers from religion to military history that I was pleasantly surprised he was able to do it in an enjoyable fashion that never bored me with too many dates, battles, or emperors.Instead, the author covers the emperors that were important and ruled during times of success or failure that changed history, religious questions that divided the empire and battles that stand out as decisive in the long-term. Having read more in-depth works on Byzantine warfare, I think the author effectively balances giving the reader enough detail while keeping a focus on the big picture.I think the author made it an enjoyable read that kept me wanting to get to that next chapter on break or after work. This is something I value highly - not simply the knowledge to write on a subject, but also the writing ability to make that knowledge readable for the buyer. Even though I have already read other works about the Byzantine Empire, I enjoyed this work and learned more than I thought I would. This is a five-star book that I recommend to anyone interested in the other Roman Empire.