Sometimes if you read you learn things.
> before the Church plunged Europe into the Dark Ages
If by the "Church" you mean the "collapse of the Western Roman Empire partly due to invasion and raiding" and by "plunged" you mean "precipitated the slow decline of the infrastructure of the society" and by the "Dark Ages" you mean the "Early Middle Ages" then there are plenty of history books, a good overview one is Europe: A History or for a wider view History: From the Dawn of Civilization to the Present Day.
Anyone who wants a fairly short, fun-to-read book about how the Church kept literacy and the written heritage of Greece and Rome alive during the Dark Ages should read "How the Irish Saved Civilization: The Untold Story of Ireland's Heroic Role From the Fall of Rome to the Rise of Medieval Europe". It's a tremendously inspiring and uplifting true story about people persevering as their world collapsed around them - great for these black-pilled times. There's an Audible version, too.
https://www.amazon.com/How-Irish-Saved-Civilization-Irelands/dp/0385418493
I really enjoyed Scotland: A New History, you can get it on Amazon for pennies.
It goes from the Scottish Wars of Independence to modern day Scotland.
Thanks for the link, I'll check it out. I understand :) What got you into soccer? and random question but is soccer big over there? It's nice to meet an American fan. I play FPL as well. How your team doing? Mine hasn't been doing the best though and with Aguero scoring 5 goals this week, I'm very much regret not having him on my team. If you like European history then I recommend you check out "Europe: A history" by Norman Davies I linked to Amazon USA for you to check it out. It's a good book and a good read. I know what you mean about there being a lot of history here. I remember when I was younger when my family used go on holiday, we used stop at a car park that had a castle and monument there. I never really thought much of it until I was older and decided to look into what it was about. It turns out this happened there. Feels strange to know that it may have happened on one of the spots we may have parked. I've always wanted to visit Boston and D.C so I'll definitely check them out in the future. To be honest I haven't heard good things about Philadelphia, What's wrong with Philadelphia? One place I'd suggest you check out is York. After all, New York and York share history and name. There are many places I've love to visit in Europe too. Italy or Spain would be where I'd start. Thank you for the advice, I appreciate it.
Lots of Irish / Scots-Irish in Appalachia. In colonial days poor immigrant last and recently freed indentured servants could find land and community in the mountains, away from the English influence they had emigrated from. The Battle of Kings Mountain was mostly fought by Scots-Irish immigrants. That lineage runs deep including the music. Here’s an old Documentary on the subject: https://youtu.be/DHOyYQ0Wm_I and here’s a decent book: https://www.amazon.com/Born-Fighting-Scots-Irish-Shaped-America/dp/0767916891
> Here is my prediction: hopefully most places will hang onto whatever level of reopening they reached this summer without backtracking. I do think this is the last round of widespread hysteria this thing has in it (based on the relative drop in hysteria levels between last year and this year),
Hopefully you're right. You ever read Simon Schama's Citizens, a social history of the French revolution-? He describes "revolutionary madness", and how as late as the 1830s there were people in insane asylums throughout France, who went mad from too much "revolutionary fervor" and had to be locked up, especially after Napoleon destroyed all the great revolutionary hopes by turning France into an empire under an autocrat's rule. Maybe that's what we'll see in country after country : Everyone's back to more or less normal, but there are little enclaves here and there who never go out in public unmasked or unshielded , and without spray bottles of disinfective. that's probably the best case scenario.
I would think saving it should count.
How the Irish Saved Civilization
>The perfect St. Patrick's Day gift, and a book in the best tradition of popular history -- the untold story of Ireland's role in maintaining Western culture while the Dark Ages settled on Europe.
>Every year millions of Americans celebrate St. Patrick's Day, but they may not be aware of how great an influence St. Patrick was on the subsequent history of civilization. Not only did he bring Christianity to Ireland, he instilled a sense of literacy and learning that would create the conditions that allowed Ireland to become "the isle of saints and scholars" -- and thus preserve Western culture while Europe was being overrun by barbarians.
>In this entertaining and compelling narrative, Thomas Cahill tells the story of how Europe evolved from the classical age of Rome to the medieval era. Without Ireland, the transition could not have taken place. Not only did Irish monks and scribes maintain the very record of Western civilization -- copying manuscripts of Greek and Latin writers, both pagan and Christian, while libraries and learning on the continent were forever lost -- they brought their uniquely Irish world-view to the task.
>As Cahill delightfully illustrates, so much of the liveliness we associate with medieval culture has its roots in Ireland. When the seeds of culture were replanted on the European continent, it was from Ireland that they were germinated.
If any of you have read A Canticle for Liebowitz you should read this.
Hey now, Who formed the first literate society? Who invented our modern ideas of democracy? The Scots.
Here's some support for this:
How the Irish Saved Civilization by Thomas Cahill
the untold story of Ireland's role in maintaining Western culture while the Dark Ages settled on Europe.
Every year millions of Americans celebrate St. Patrick's Day, but they may not be aware of how great an influence St. Patrick was on the subsequent history of civilization. Not only did he bring Christianity to Ireland, he instilled a sense of literacy and learning that would create the conditions that allowed Ireland to become "the isle of saints and scholars" -- and thus preserve Western culture while Europe was being overrun by barbarians.
Also, they had Europe's first Ministry of Education.
In "Europe - A History", Norman Davies goes into the Polish-Lithuanian history quite a bit.
One source is: this and the 1st edition of this.
Purely from an economic assessment of building and maintaining the wall you can see that they weren't leaving the area alone. It was a strategic means to control Scotland and an economic decision. Rome could not afford to conquer Scotland.
If it reallocated its ample resource to do so, Rome would have fallen. That seems to have been the decision at the time. Rome was overstretched and could not conquer Scotland without potentially losing areas far more vital to its continuation. It couldn't have conquered Scotland. You see?
<strong>How the Scots Invented the Modern World: The True Story of How Western Europe's Poorest Nation Created Our World and Everything in It</strong> <----required reading for participation
"Europe: A History" by Norman Davies. Just skip the prehistory part.
The problem with books on Scottish history is that there is a lot of romanticisation which has resulted in a fair amount of poor and misleading literature. There has however been a bit of a renaissance in Scottish history writing since the end of the last century. As a starting point, I'd recommend Michael Lynch's 'Scotland: A New History'. https://www.amazon.co.uk/Scotland-New-History-Michael-Lynch/dp/0712698930/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1477865425&sr=8-1&keywords=michael+lynch+scotland
It goes way beyond the banjo. The Scots invented all kinds of things.
You are extremely ignorant of history.
I recommend the following:
http://www.amazon.com/Citizens-A-Chronicle-French-Revolution/dp/0679726101
http://www.amazon.com/Peoples-Tragedy-Russian-Revolution-1891-1924/dp/014024364X
All y'all Scots Irish ain't neither. You're probably border English that Cromwell sent over to displace the true Irish.
This might be me though, we'll see what my 23 and Me says
Edit: But if you are, embrace your heritage. Jim Webb wrote a tremendous book on the Scots Irish
Them's my people. Here are a couple of books you might enjoy: <em>Born Fighting</em> by Jim Webb and <em>Steel Bonnets</em> by George MacDonald Fraser.
Seems rather a stretch to suggest that.
My reference may or may not be accurate. How the Irish Saved Civilization: The Untold Story of Ireland's Heroic Role From the Fall of Rome to the Rise of Medieval Europe (The Hinges of History) Paperback – February 1, 1996 by Thomas Cahill
"how the scots invented the modern world" is an awesome book. great overview of scottish impact on culture, economics, religion.
'Born Fighting' By author/senator/certified badass Jim Webb isn't, strictly speaking, about the history of Appalachia, but it covers the development of Appalachia in decent detail.
http://www.amazon.com/Born-Fighting-Scots-Irish-Shaped-America/dp/0767916891
If you read books like Schama's Citizens: A chronicle of the French Revolution though, he makes a strong case that the French Revolution was ultimately futile, and vastly hurt the 'little people' most of all, and that ultimately the cure was much much worse than the disease - if there even was a 'disease' worth talking about. The old monarchy's main problem was that progress was too fast, rather than too slow.
Edit: I'm also worrying because I really want to find someone to go see Tosca with, but I don't think that's going to happen.
There's an excellent book called How the Irish Saved Civilization where the author makes an excellent case for Irish monasteries bringing written works back to Europe and ending the Dark Ages, by virtue of being so secluded from all the action going on in Europe at the time. It's a great story, and told well, even if the historical value isn't on perfectly stable ground.
It's also important to remember that scholars saved what they thought was important, and so moving forward we see a subjective slant on what was preserved (culturally subjective at least).
What's really interesting is that from a historical standpoint if the Irish had fallen in to the Dark Ages as well and Europe had not pulled out of that nosedive, the Chinese Dynasties or Muslims (under a Caliph) likely would have become the imperialist forces of the modern world.
Did you even read the wiki article? Specifically, did you read the part labeled "criticism"? I don't claim to be an expert in the field (I'm not a historian, and I've only just heard of this theory), but the arguments against this theory seem to be a lot stronger than you give them credit for. Do you know of any responses to those criticisms, or of any independent research which supports Fomenko's claims?
In the interests of honesty, I should say that I'm predisposed to disagree with Fomenko, due to his statements about Judaism and the Old Testament and the fact that I'm a fan of Europe: A History. However, I would be interested in seeing what other sources you might recommend.
Europe: A History is a door stopper, but it is very well-written. I wouldn't recommend trying to read it straight through, though!
I think I get what you're going for, but you have SO many topics in there. I suggest you start with one book on general European history then delve deeper into specific areas that you're interested in. Europe was home to so many different tribes/civilizations which contributed to how it is now. You can find anything from an Idiot's Guide to something like this. Have fun!