“Civilization: A Personal View”, by Kenneth Clark

359 pages, Harper & Row, ISBN-13: 978-1299625471

Lord Kenneth Clark (1903-1983), English art historian and past director of the British National Gallery in London (1934-1945) reacted to the ominous signs of world cultural and political revolution which characterized the 1960’s by writing the scripts and hosting a 13 hour BBC documentary series titled simply Civilization (1969). The television documentary series he created was actually intended to discourage revolutionary thought and activity (Clark’s final pontifical message delivered at the very end of the final episode of the series), and thus could be regarded as a personal declaration delivered by one of the high priests of the British Establishment. What Clark created accomplished was in producing one of the very best and most digestible tours of the great works of European art and architecture ever produced before or since. Regardless of one’s opinion of his political and social motives, his magnum opus opposing the 60’s revolution constitutes a masterful and compelling summary of truly great art and architecture. Any person who desires the best possible education regarding the subject of art and culture in Europe at its best during the past 1000+ years owes it to him or herself to see the entire 13 hour video series and to obtain and reread often the print version of that work.

The book, then, is really the transcript of the series of the same title, giving it a conversational style that is both readable and interesting and which pulls the book along quite nicely. It’s accompanied by almost 300 illustrations (in my edition), many in color. It’s a beautiful book, but rather limited by the subject and the medium of the printed word adapted from TV. These have rather peculiar limitations, because they tend to be very personal, from the point of view of the narrator (as the title stipulates), so beware of many opinions masquerading as facts. Further, it has nothing to do with art outside Western Europe: Poland, the Balkans, Scandinavia, and Russia are all ignored, to say nothing of Africa, the Middle East, Asia, or Latin America. The author excuses it by saying that while he admires art from there, he knows little about it, and this book is about what he knows: art, primarily painting, from ancient Greece and Rome, Italy, France, and Britain, with a bit from the U.S.A. and Spain, up to the mid-18th Century.

Since Kenneth Clark produced Civilization, the cultural world has changed considerably for the worse. Educational institutions and media neither aspire to nor are successful at creating cultured people; cultured conversation or familiarity seems to exist almost nowhere; classic culture is no longer the result of higher education, nor, it seems safe though sad to say, of any education presently available at all, anywhere; the world, culturally, has returned to the Dark Ages, as it does from time to time. Kenneth Clark's work is a gleaming precious gem amidst the present darkness. It’s out of print and hard to find, but it's not gone completely. Those who know of its existence, and who know where valuable cultural works like Civilization can still be gotten, needn't be gloomy, nor need they worry about the present dark times.

“Constantine the Great: The Man and His Times”, by Michael Grant

267 pages, History Book Club, ISBN-13: 978-0965014212

This is a concise yet thoughtful work on the pivotal character in the late classical world, Flavius Valerius Constantinus – Constantine the Great. Grant’s book records the turbulent life of the first Christian Roman emperor, a charismatic man who was directly responsible for the founding of Constantinople as the Roman capital and the conversion of the Roman Empire to Christianity. By the time Constantine died in 337, he had reigned over changes of significance, notably the establishment of Christianity as the state religion of the Roman Empire. Constantine’s character is analyzed briefly and about as well as possible; there is also an excellent chapter on his building programs throughout the Roman Empire. The Civil Wars between Constantine and Maxentius, then Constantine and Licinius, are covered in good detail. This being a typical Michael Grant book, all is done expeditiously and without a great deal of fluff.

This is for good and bad: more information on the Tetrarchy would have been useful to help give the reader a clearer picture of the times Constantine lived in (Constantine lived at the court of Galerius, who was a “Caesar”, or junior emperor, under Diocletian, and an “Augustus”, or senior emperor, after Diocletian and Maximian retired). The conclusion was a bit disappointing: Grant spent too little time discussing the affect Constantine’s policies had upon the civil wars fought by his three sons and two nephews, of which Constantius II was ultimately victorious. Also, he spends little time in his conclusion talking about how Constantine’s policies affected Constantius II’s rule.

Under all of these successes, Constantine was really a rather private man. He was full of superstitious beliefs and had many visions and dreams that announced his conversation to Christianity. He went to great lengths to reach his goals, such as killing his wife and his oldest son, and many of his friends. After reading this book, I realized just how many of his major accomplishments were wrought through doing dreadful things to the people he loved.

“The Military Maxims of Napoleon”, by Napoleon Bonaparte, edited by David G. Chandler

256 pages, Greenhill Books, ISBN-13: 978-1853675126

Here is a distillation in one slim volume of the knowledge and wisdom of one of history’s greatest military commander. Napoleon’s unparalleled success was built on practical experience combined with his own study of the great empire-builders, from Alexander to Fredrick the Great, and the essence of what he learned from them is incorporated in this book. His thoughts, theories and commentaries on the subject are here presented in the form of accessible and readable maxims and these, with explanatory comments, reveal the fundamentals of Napoleon’s art of waging war. David Chandler has added to the explanatory comments and provided the necessary context for modern readers to compare Napoleon’s principles with the experience of war in the modern age. This revealing guide presents those principles of war and his art of conducting statecraft; it is a fascinating insight into a great mind and a unique collection of tenets on warfare in the Napoleonic era. Napoleon’s Maxims total more than ninety, and the totality of ALL of these are invaluable to the student of military history. Yet only a fraction of them were translated in this original volume that first appeared in the early 20^th Century; even worse, Chandler did not complete the job since this would have been a golden opportunity to showcase the previously omitted and rarely-seen Maxims. Hopefully, some historian will do the complete job the next time.