688
pages, Doubleday, ISBN-13: 978-0385510233
The
history of the cultures and nations that have traversed the mighty Med is
immense, and it is a brave historian indeed who decides to take up this burden.
In The Middle Sea: A History of the
Mediterranean, John Julius Norwich explains that, after some considerable
thought, he decided to start with written history and finish with the close of
the First World War. In spite of beginning well into the story and finishing
before the modern age, he presents a large book of six-hundred-plus pages
across thirty-three chapters. For those who remember history being dull and
lifeless, this book brings to life the people who lived and struggled around
the Mediterranean.
The
story begins with the almost-mythical county of Crete, which arose to be
competition to the Phoenicians and Egyptians, and whose civilization was destroyed
by a volcanic eruption (Crete is thought by many to be the source of the
legends of Atlantis); the city states of Greece arise and are threatened by the
Persian Empire; they in turn are united under Alexander the Great and go out to
unite the world; after the collapse of Alexander’s empire soon after his death,
Rome makes an appearance on the world stage; Norwich follows the rise and fall
of the Roman Empire and its offspring, Byzantium and the Holy Roman Empire; he
next details the antagonism between the Muslim world and the Christian world
and the effect of the various crusades; Norwich continues through into the
Renaissance and toward modern times and the creation of the familiar countries
that surround the Middle Sea.
John
Julius Norwich has a gift for narration and characterization that makes history
come alive. He isn’t afraid to move back and forth in time to set the Kings,
Popes and Emperors who populate his story in context, and he takes care to
describe not only what these people did, but what kind of people they were. He
exposes strengths and weakness with equal clarity. The book is extremely
well-written, replete with many intriguing anecdotes and details, and as a
narrative it is superb – and so be warned, as it is mainly a narrative and does
not try to analyze the “hows” and “whys” of historical trends. It is not a
social history, has little to nothing about economic developments, and only a
smattering of cultural and intellectual history, but it is great in covering
the general political and military history of the Mediterranean region,
maintaining the reader’s interest while covering a vast subject. Far from being
dry and boring this is a story that grips the imagination and makes it hard to
put the book down.
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