Western Civ

Today I sit down with historian Edward J. Watts and talk about his latest book: The Romans.When we think of “ancient Romans” today, many picture the toga-clad figures of Cicero and Caesar, presiding over a republic, and then an empire, before seeing their world collapse at the hands of barbarians in the fifth century AD.  The Romans does away with this narrow vision by offering the first comprehensive account of ancient Rome over the course of two millennia. Prize-winning historian Edward J. Watts recounts the full sweep of Rome’s epic past: the Punic Wars, the fall of the republic, the coming of Christianity, Alaric’s sack of Rome, the rise of Islam, the Battle of Manzikert, and the onslaught of the Crusaders who would bring about the empire’s end. Watts shows that the source of Rome’s enduring strength was the diverse range of people who all called themselves Romans. This is the Rome of Augustus, Marcus Aurelius, and Constantine, but also Charlemagne, Justinian, and Manuel Comnenus—and countless other men and women who together made it the most resilient state the world has ever seen.  BUY THE BOOK HERESUPPORT WESTERN CIV

Thucydides called his work a “possession for all time,” and his History of the Peloponnesian War has been essential reading for generals and politicians for centuries.    Robin Waterfield’s translation of Thucydides’s sweeping narrative vividly depicts the events of the war between Athens and Sparta that began in 431 BCE and would continue until 404, a conflict that embroiled not only mainland Greece but Greek states from the eastern Mediterranean and as far west as Italy and Sicily. The only extant contemporary narrative of this conflict, Thucydides’s History brims with military, moral, and political reflections, offering critical commentary on challenges that still dominate our world today, from the strife of civil war to the devastation of widespread plague to the nature of political power.   Thucydides died before completing the account—it ends in 410—but his legacy is timeless. One of the great masterpieces of classical Greece, The History of the Peloponnesian War offers an incisive and timely window into the conflicts of the past. BUY THE BOOK

Washington's victory at Yorktown effectively ends the war and costs Great Britain her colonies.Western Civ 2.0 Free Trial

The Battle of Saratoga turns the tide while Washington builds resilience in Valley Forge.Western Civ 2.0 Free Trial

The American colonists vote for independence and Washington crosses the Delaware. Western Civ 2.0 Free Trial

By the end of the Second World War, more than seventy million people across the globe had been killed, most of them civilians. Cities from Warsaw to Tokyo lay in ruins, and fully half of the world’s two billion people had been mobilized, enslaved, or displaced.In 1942, historian Peter Fritzsche offers a gripping, ground-level portrait of the decisive year when World War II escalated to global catastrophe. With the United States joining the fight following Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbor, all the world’s great powers were at war. The debris of ships sunk by Nazi submarines littered US beaches, Germans marauded in North Africa, and the Japanese swept through the Pacific. Military battles from Singapore to Stalingrad riveted the world. But so, too, did dramas on the war’s home fronts: battles against colonial overlords, assaults on internal “enemies,” massive labor migrations, endless columns of refugees.With an eye for detail and an eye on the big story, Fritzsche takes us from shipyards on San Francisco Bay to townships in Johannesburg to street corners in Calcutta to reveal the moral and existential drama of a people’s war filled with promise and terror.BUY THE BOOK

In the span of one decade, Great Britain went from winning a war against France to fighting a war with its own colonies. This is that story.Western Civ 2.0 Free Trial

Over the course of roughly three decades, Lithuania-Poland ceased to exist. Western Civ 2.0 Free Trial

AKA the French and Indian War for those of you who ever took US History...Western Civ 2.0 Free Trial

A number of factors led into the Seven Years War. Here I break them down.Western Civ 2.0