The Dark Ages and the Transformation of Western Civilization

There's a huge push to say that the dark ages weren't really the dark ages and it's one continuous civilization. But Spangler is very adamant that what we understand as Western civilization didn't just start in the 10th century, it started between the Rhine and the Vistula. And he says that like the Faustian spirit, which is the defining characteristic of what we call Western civilization was birth by Germans.