How the West Won: The Neglected Story of the Triumph of Modernity

A must read for a real and accurate history of Modern Western Civilization. Captivating and informative. I could not put the book down. If one desires to know the true, objective ,non revisionist history of modern western civilization and its contributions to the development of modern society ( the one they don’t teach in Universities anymore), this is a must read.

In the first half of the fifteenth century, decades before Columbus set sail, the great Chinese admiral Zheng He commanded a fleet that seven times sailed across the Indian Ocean and reached the shores of East Africa. This talented admiral returned from each voyage—(some historians believe he died on the last one)—with rare goods and exotic animals. In spite of this impressive feat of navigation, after Zhen He’s death the Chinese emperor decreed an end to the construction of oceangoing vessels. He then had Zehng He’s fleet dragged ashore and left to rot, and even ordered the surviving animals in the imperial zoo killed. The emperor did these things, as Rodney Stark tells us in How The West Won: The Neglected Story of the Triumph of Modernity (ISBN 161017085-7, $27.95) because of “Confucian opposition to change on grounds that the past was greatly superior.” Many historians have explored the reasons for the rise to power and dominance of the West, and in regard to theories of this momentous circumstance Stark gives readers little new information. He follows the road blazed by other historians, citing such causes and influences as the Greek philosophers, Judaism and Christianity, the idea of progress (certainly lacking in Zheng He’s China), the use of rationality and scientific exploration as ways of explaining the world. What sets How The West Won apart from similar histories, and what makes it a sheer delight to read, are Stark’s wit, his elegant writing, and most especially, his reinterpretation of various historical events. In the case of the Roman Empire, for example, Stark explains that the empire’s fall was actually a beneficial rather than a negative event. Through many examples he demonstrates that the Romans were something like the Chinese, uninterested in developing their technology, and that the fall of Rome did not give rise to a barbarian Europe, but rather to Europe itself. As Stark explains, until that point in time all of Europe north of Italy had looked to Rome and the Mediterranean for trade and the standards of “civilization.” With Rome’s fall, the emphasis on such things moved northward. Nearly every chapter of How The West Won breaks some widely held opinion. Stark attacks the old thesis that Protestantism created capitalism, demonstrating that capitalism and banking were already well developed in such places as the city-states of Northern Italy. He investigates the spread of Protestantism, showing its links to certain German universities and to those towns that had charters and liberties allowing for change. He reveals that many of the lesser educated citizens in Germany, particularly the peasants, cared little about religion or faith, a circumstance lamented by Martin Luther himself. “The most fundamental key to the rise of Western civilization,” Stark writes, “has been the dedication of so many of its most brilliant minds to the pursuit of knowledge.” This sentence appears at the beginning of a chapter on the medieval scholastics, those scholars and logicians who have been denigrated ever since the Enlightenment. Stark defends these academics, reminding us that they practiced a form of highly rational thinking and that this way of thinking, of perceiving the world, carried great weight in exploring that world. Men like William of Ockham, Roger Bacon, and Nicole Oresme turned the tools of their training into what we now call the “scientific method.” A second key to Western success addressed by Stark is the development of political liberty. We are so accustomed to our various rights and liberties, particularly here in America, that we often take them for granted and wonder why democracy and its attendant institutions can’t be exported abroad as easily as Cokes, motion pictures, and jeans. Stark returns to this unique aspect of Western culture throughout the book, perhaps most vividly by contrasting Imperial Spain in its golden age with that tiny newcomer to the world stage, England. As Spain slid into obscurity, hedged about by too many laws and damaged by its system of kings and wealthy landowners, liberty-loving England entered an industrial revolution and created an empire. Though a university professor—he is Distinguished Professor of the Social Sciences at Baylor University—Stark writes clear, crisp prose with a general audience clearly in mind. Here, for example, is a typical passage about our misconceptions regarding the Romans and the barbarians who conquered them: “As for the average person’s standard of living, it is true that the state no longer subsidized food or made daily free distributions of bread, olive oil, and wine. But studies based on isotopic analysis of skeletons have found that people in the so-called Dark Ages ate very well, getting lots of mean, and as a result they grew larger than people had during the days of the empire.” One caveat: despite the provocative title, How The West Won is not the work of a pundit. Stark backs up his various claims and historical corrections with his own research and that of many others. The endnotes, bibliography, and index take up nearly a quarter of the book. If you are looking for lively, erudite history, you’ll find How The West Won a splendid companion.

“Rather than a great tragedy, the fall of Rome was the single most beneficial event in the rise of Western civilization. The many stultifying centuries of Roman rule saw only two significant instances of progress: the invention of concrete and the rise of Christianity, the latter taking place despite Roman attempts to prevent it.’’ What! Romans in the darkness and christians brought the light? Wow! Also . . . “The “Dark Ages” never happened—that was an era of remarkable progress and innovation that included the invention of capitalism.’’ Man-o-man. “The crusaders did not march east in pursuit of land and loot. They went deeply into debt to finance their participation in what they regarded as a religious mission. Most thought it unlikely that they would live to return (and most didn’t).’’ Right. “Although still ignored by most historians, dramatic changes in climate played a major role in the rise of the West—a period of unusually warm weather (from about 800 to about 1250) was followed by centuries of extreme cold, now known as the Little Ice Age (from about 1300 to about 1850).’’ Global warming was great benefit! “There was no “Scientific Revolution” during the seventeenth century—these brilliant achievements were the culmination of normal scientific progress stretching back to the founding of universities in the twelfth century by Scholastic natural philosophers.’’ I’ve come to same conclusion. “The Reformations did not result in religious freedom but merely replaced repressive Catholic monopoly churches with equally repressive Protestant monopoly churches (it became a serious criminal offense to celebrate the Mass in most of Protestant Europe).’’ Reformation led to the wars of nationalism. Horrible. Still. “Europe did not grow rich by draining wealth from its worldwide colonies; in fact, the colonies drained wealth from Europe—and meanwhile gained the benefits of modernity.’’ So true. Very . . . deeply . . . counter cultural. Are you ready? What else? “Or, why did science and democracy originate in the West, along with representational art, chimneys, soap, pipe organs, and a system of musical notation? Why was it that for several hundred years beginning in the thirteenth century only Europeans had eyeglasses and mechanical clocks? And what about telescopes, microscopes, and periscopes?” Good questions. What is his focus? “In attempting to explain this remarkable cultural singularity, I will, of course, pay attention to material factors—obviously history would have been quite different had Europe lacked iron and coal or been landlocked. Even so, my explanations will not rest primarily on material conditions and forces. Instead I give primacy to ideas, even though this is quite unfashionable in contemporary scholarly circles.’’ Ideas matter. One idea that really matters . . . “Similarly, it is ideas that explain why science arose only in the West. Only Westerners thought that science was possible, that the universe functioned according to rational rules that could be discovered. We owe this belief partly to the ancient Greeks and partly to the unique Judeo-Christian conception of God as a rational creator.’’ This conclusion rejected by many . . . most . . . What You Don’t Know about the Rise of the West Part I Classical Beginnings (500 BC–AD 500) 1 Stagnant Empires and the Greek “Miracle” 2 Jerusalem’s Rational God 3 The Roman Interlude Part II The Not-So-Dark Ages (500–1200) 4 The Blessings of Disunity 5 Northern Lights over Christendom 6 Freedom and Capitalism Part III Medieval Transformations (1200–1500) 7 Climate, Plague, and Social Change 8 The Pursuit of Knowledge 9 Industry, Trade, and Technology 10 Discovering the World Part IV The Dawn of Modernity (1500–1750) 11 New World Conquests and Colonies 12 The Golden Empire 13 The Lutheran Reformation: Myths and Realities 14 Exposing Muslim Illusions 15 Science Comes of Age Part V Modernity (1750– ) 16 The Industrial Revolution 17 Liberty and Prosperity 18 Globalization and Colonialism One overriding opinion is Marx’ teaching that ideas don’t, can’t influence human history. Well . . . “If Marx was sincere when he dismissed the possibility of ideas being causative agents as “ideological humbug,” one must wonder why he labored so long to communicate his socialist ideas rather than just relaxing and letting “economic determinism” run its “inevitable” course. In fact, Marx’s beloved material causes exist mainly as humans perceive them—as people pursue goals guided by their ideas about what is desirable and possible. Indeed, to explain why working-class people so often did not embrace the socialist revolution, Marx and Friedrich Engels had to invent the concept of “false consciousness”—an entirely ideological cause.’’ So . . . so . . . obvious! This is a work that should change the opinions and assumptions of modern culture, society. Won’t happen. Sad. Work deserves ten stars! Hundreds and hundreds of notes (linked) Tremendous scholarship! Thousands of references in bibliography (not linked) Outstanding research! Detailed index (linked) Great! No photographs

When I began my teaching career in the mid-60s, I routinely taught a history course, Western Civilization, which was most everywhere basic to college curricula. Two decades later, relocating to a college which had replaced “Western Civilization” with “World Civilizations,” I unsuccessfully argued for a return to the much more focused and manageable course on the West. As Rodney Stark notes, in How the West Won: The Neglected Story of the Triumph of Modernity (Wilmington, Delaware: ISI Books, c. 2014): “Forty years ago the most important and popular freshman course at the best American colleges and universities was “Western Civilization.” It not only covered the general history of the West but also included historical surveys of art, music, literature, philosophy, and science. But this course has long since disappeared from most college catalogues on grounds that Western civilization is but one of the many civilizations and it is ethnocentric and arrogant for us to study ours” (#42). Thus we witnessed Stanford abandon its “widely admired ‘Western Civilization’ course just months after the Reverend Jesse Jackson came on campus and led members of the Black Student Union in chants of ‘Hey-hey, ho-ho, Western Civ has got to go.’ More recently, faculty at the University of Texas condemned ‘Western Civilization’ courses as inherently right wing, and Yale even returned a $20 million contribution rather than reinstate the course” (#49). In light of this, Stark offers his book as a sturdy (indeed, contrarian!) defense of the currently-maligned West. Doing so, he challenges many of the voguish views of the academy, arguing that the fall of the Roman Empire was in fact beneficial, that the “Dark Ages” never happened, that the Crusades are defensible, that global warming in earlier eras was a blessing, that the “Scientific Revolution” clearly began in the Medieval period rather than the 17th century, that the Protestant Reformers replaced a repressive Catholic system with equally repressive Protestant systems, and that Europe’s colonies impoverished rather than enriched their sponsors. Still more: he argues that non-Western societies such as the Chinese and Islamic, Mayan and Indic, failed to become “modern” because of intrinsic factors making such a transition impossible. To Stark, the West’s distinctiveness resides in its ideas, and contrary to many historians (operating within a generally materialistic—whether Darwinian or Marxist—philosophical perspective) he thinks economic developments do not fully explain why cultures and civilizations rise and fall. Glancing at the world of Classical Beginnings (500 BC-AD 500), he finds: “At the dawn of history most people [whether in China or India or Mesopotamia or Egypt] lived lives of misery and exploitation in tyrannical empires that covered huge areas” (#151). Subject to arbitrary and frequently despotic rulers, forced to work within a command economy, deprived of secure title to property, the masses of mankind loved poorly. Consequently, “in 1900 Chinese peasants were using essentially the same tools and techniques that had been using for more than three thousand years. The same was true in Egypt” (#228). But then, “In the midst of all this misery and repression a ‘miracle’ of progress and freedom took place in Greece among people who lived not in an empire but in hundreds of small, independent city-states. It was here that the formation of Western civilization began” (#158). Despite the persistence of slavery, the Greeks tasted and celebrated (in both games and politics) the luxury of freedom. Thriving as individuals, they flourished in such areas as: warfare; democracy; economics; literary; the arts; technology; speculative philosophy and formal logic. Importantly (as Herodotus noted in explaining the differences between Egypt and Greece), “the ancient Greeks took the single most significant step toward the rise of Western science when they proposed that the universe is orderly and governed by underlying principles that the human mind could discern through observation and reason” (#473). This was possible because—as Anaxagoras and Plato saw—there is a Mind (Nous) underlying the physical cosmos—a monotheistic perspective that undergirds the West’s triumphs. Anticipating and complementing developments in Greece, Jewish theologians also proclaimed a “rational God” who was eternal, immutable, conscious and revealed to us through both creation and scripture. Due to Alexander’s conquests and the subsequent Roman occupation of their land, many Jews were quite cosmopolitan—two centuries before Christ Jerusalem was actually known as “Antioch-at-Jerusalem.” Early Christians such as Justin Martyr drew upon the best Greek thinkers (“Christians before Christ”) as they developed their theology. Both Christian and Greek philosophers (preeminently Plato) revered “the divine gift of reason” which “has sown the seeds of truth in all men as beings created in God’s image’” (#698). Thus, to Augustine: “‘Heaven forbid that God should hate in us that by which he made us superior to the animals. Heaven forbid that we should believe in such as way as not to accept or seek reasons, since we could not even belief if we did not possess rationals souls’” (#751). Confidence in the rationality of the Creator—as well as His providential care for creation—enabled later Christian thinkers to do significant the scientific and historical studies basic to Western Civilization. By contrast: “Islam holds that the universe is inherently irrational—that there is no cause and effect—because everything happens as the direct result of Allah’s will at that particular time. Anything is possible. Attempts at science, then, are not only foolish but also blasphemous, in that they imply limits to Allah’s power and authority. Therefore Muslim scholars study law (what does Allah require?), not science” (#825), and Islam, for 1400 years, has demonstrably failed to develop anything comparable to the science and technology, literature and philosophy of the West. Similarly, in China, the Confucian reverence for the past encouraged an opposition to change clearly illustrated by the great Chinese admiral Zheng He, who led large fleets (involving several hundred ships) across the Indian Ocean to the coast of East Africa between 1405 and 1433 A.D. His expeditions, which could easily have led to the a Chinese of the globe, came to naught when the emperor dismantled his ships and forbade further construction of oceangoing vessels. Even the blueprints for Zheng’s ships were destroyed! Following the fall of Rome (“the most beneficial event in the rise of Western civilization”), the West emerged from the crucible of Greek and Christian culture. In the “Not-So-Dark” Middle Ages, its genius emerged and flourished. Political decentralization encouraged creativity and competition, progress and prosperity. An “agricultural revolution” enabled Medieval Europeans to eat better and live longer—as did the favorable climate during the “Medieval Warming” era (800-1250 A.D.). “As food became abundant, the population of Europe soared from about 25 million in 950 to about 75 million in 1250” (#2737). Harnessing wind and water with sophisticated machinery (often shaped in blast furnaces) enabled them to irrigate land and grind grain and navigate seas. Germans and Scandinavians, Hungarians and Slavs were successfully converted and began contributing to the creative Christian Culture responsible for impressive monuments—Gothic cathedrals; universities at Oxford and Paris; scientific inquires and advances under the guidance of brilliant thinkers such as Nicole Oresme and Jean Buridan; and magisterial scholarly works such as Thomas Aquinas’ Summa Theologica. Within that Medieval incubus there emerged, Stark stresses, the “freedom and capitalism” essential for the modern world. Slavery slowly disappeared throughout Christendom. It “ended in medieval Europe only because the Church extended its sacraments to all slaves and then banned the enslavement of Christians” (#2349). Only in the Christian world was slavery eliminated! Persons were increasingly free (despite the persistence of serfdom) to work voluntarily and creatively—and to increasingly to take part in the political life of their communities. Capitalism emerged throughout Europe during the late Middle Ages, long before the Protestant Reformation. Private property, commercial activities flourishing through free markets, and capital investments rendering income all brought about an incredible economic transformation. Above all else: “If there is a single factor responsible for the rise of the West, it is freedom. Freedom to hope. Freedom to act. Freedom to invest. Freedom to enjoy the flirts of one’s dreams as well as one’s labor” (#2663). This freedom flourished in Medieval Europe and shaped the future of the West. Dramatically evident in 1492, the West quickly expanded to control much of the globe in successive centuries. Technological developments, markedly evident in superior military equipment and trades goods, enabled relatively small groups of Europeans to conquer or colonize the Americas. They also proved decisive in numerous conflicts with Muslims, insuring their retreat from Europe. “In 1800 Europeans controlled 35 percent of the land surface of the globe. By 1878 this figure had risen to 67 percent. Then in the next two decades, Europeans seized control of nearly all of Africa, so that in 1914, on the eve of World War I, Europeans dominated 84 percent of the world’s land area” (#6604). Intellectually, the “Enlightenment” proved equally decisive. Though it did indeed prompt various heterodox notions, the Enlightenment must be understood, in accord with Alfred North Whitehead, as rooted in many of the scientific and theological insights of Medieval thinkers—most especially the rationality of God and His world. “For, as Albert Einstein once remarked, the most incomprehensible thing about the universe is that it is comprehensible: ‘A priori one should expect a chaotic world which cannot be grasped by the mind in any way . . . That is the “miracle” which is constantly being reinforced as our knowledge expands.’ And that is the ‘miracle that testifies to a creation guided by intention and rationality” (#5963). Due to this “miracle,” we Moderns enjoy unprecedented prosperity. The standard of living has dramatically increased during the past two centuries. Enjoying “political freedom, secure property rights, high wages, cheap energy, and a highly educated population,” the West now features an unprecedented quality-of-life. Back-breaking manual labor has been largely replaced by machines. Ordinary people enjoy “consumer” goods available only to the super-wealthy in earlier centuries. Hardly the catastrophe denounced by romantics (from William Wordsworth to Al Gore), technology has greatly improved the lot of ordinary folks. And this is, quite simply, how the West won!

In an attempt to bring some integrity to the historical accounts of the era of Western colonialism (c. 1800 – 1900) Rodney Stark makes the following observation. “To embrace the fundamental message of cultural imperialism requires that one be comfortable with such crimes against women as foot binding, female circumcision, the custom of sati (which causes widows to be burned to death, tied to their husbands’ funeral pyres, and the stoning to death of rape victims on the grounds of their adultery. It also requires one to agree that tyranny is every bit as desirable as democracy and that slavery should be tolerated if it is in accord with local customs. Similarly, one must classify high infant mortality rates, toothlessness in early adulthood and the castration of young boys as valid parts of local cultures, to be cherished along with illiteracy. For it was especially on these aspects of non-Western cultures that modernity was “imposed” both by missionaries and by other colonialists.” I finished reading Rodney Stark’s “HOW THE WEST WON” this past week. I recommended it last week, and I promise this will be my last plug for the book, for which I receive no compensation, except the satisfaction that I may interest some of you in reading this much needed correction to the present trend to rewrite the history of the Christian west. I want to include another extensive quotation from the last chapter. “Nearly all modern accounts stress greed and racism as the basis for Europe’s colonial expansion. Granted, both were significant factors, but so too were idealism and charity, especially on the part of Christian missionaries, who were often at least as concerned to educate and modernize foreign lands as to convert the world to Christ. For example, by 1910 British and American overseas mission organizations had established 86 colleges and universities, 522 teachers colleges (often referred to as normal schools), and thousands of elementary schools in Asia and Africa. Nor were missionaries the only idealists involved. The earliest British military intrusions into Africa were devoted mainly to stamping out the slave trade. During 1840 alone the British navy intercepted 425 slave ships off the West African coast, hanged the slavers, returned the slaves to Sierra Leone, and set them free.” When I was half way through this book according to my indicator at the bottom of the page on my Kindle reader I was rejoicing that I had a full half of the book to go. Then the book concluded, and I realized that a full half the book was dedicated to footnotes and a listing of the sources for the information in the book. Not only has Stark given us a needed correction for all the false historical information pumped out by a culture intent on showing that truth does not exist and all truth claims and cultures are relative, but he has documented his offering so thoroughly that it is beyond contradiction. The need for this kind of information is the danger that we forget the religious foundations of Western civilization. If we lose the foundations the structure collapses. I still wear a sweat shirt created by the young people at Franklin Union Baptist Church which reads, “The Wise Man Built His House Upon The Rock,” Matt. 8:24.”

A comprehensive history of the factors that led to Western Cultural Dominance after the fall of western Rome. Written for the general reader and heavily sourced and footnoted, it's a swift and easy read. It avoids the Academic fads and obsessions that have little to do with facts. It does a lot of comparison to other regionally dominant civilizations and what factors advanced and impeded them. It offers the popular theories and fallacies and uses facts to support or refute them. It will puncture many of the myths that have been taught to all of us and offers the evidence to support his alternative explanations. Very eye opening for those of us burdened by opinion taught as fact. Well written and accessible to all General readers. I will be buying other books of his and his bibliography has given me many other things to explore. A note on format, I read it on a kindle download and the footnotes are linked and easy to use, unlike other histories I've read.

As a relative beginner to history books, this was a great overview of Western society's path from ancient Greece to the modern day. The author (Stark) says his main intent is to give a thorough re-examination of the standard "Western Civ" college course. This is a lesson worth taking again - published in 2014, Stark refers to multiple new studies based on archaeological evidence and new sources of data discovered within the past 50 years. These new insights are fascinating when contrasted to the common myths that have been re-told through the generations. What I appreciate most about this book is Stark's willingness to stick to the data. For example, his review of why the Reformation influenced some European societies and not others did not begin with an objective followed by supporting data - he looked at all of the data and then chose the accurate conclusion from competing historians. Stark also isn't afraid to tell you when he liked one conclusion, but the data supported another. In the Kindle version, 43% of the book is notes and references, which doesn't automatically make sources accurate, but shows you the level of research that went into creating the book. Speaking of Kindle...give us Real Page Numbers please! Stark also does a great job at telling you WHY certain myths have remained popular. OK, the fall of Rome was a good thing, but why has it been considered a catastrophe for so long? Who has written the history to make it seem so? Intriguing answers that will make you think. Each of the chapters could be its own book. Keep Wikipedia on your phone handy! It's stimulated me to read about smaller stories within the chapters. I am sure some historians will take issue with points here and there, and some sections were more entertaining than others - the introduction on Greek philosophy felt long while the ending abrupt - but that is a matter of personal preference and does not take away from the overall quality of this work. An excellent read on my Kindle.

American universities continue their regression into the pre-Medieval model of schooling. Far from inventing the future, universities are merely receding into a pre-university past. Authority, not observation and experiment, now determines what is to be believed and asserted. The goal is to indoctrinate students into believing fashionable, politically-approved doctrines that lack any basis in history and scientific fact. The earliest universities were established in 1088 by the church to discover knowledge, to break out of the old pattern of merely memorizing those teachings approved by the powers that be. Today's secular universities have turned away from that voyage of discovery and are now far down the road of denying reality. And yet we still have professors who resist this contemporary nonsense and work to promote truth. Such a professor is Rodney Stark, Distinguished Professor of the Social Sciences at Baylor University. [...] Professor Stark explores the ideas that arose only in the West, in Europe and North America. Why did science and democracy arise only in the West? Why was slavery outlawed only in the West? Why did westerners come to dominate the earth when other groups had thousands of years of history that failed to give them an advantage? In answering these questions, which are mostly banned from consideration in American universities, Stark debunks many of the myths that the modern university has promulgated to create the Ignorant Generation. We have produced a generation of Americans who do not know who they are and where they came from. Should they fail to read books like Stark's, then they will be condemned to being what I call the "ignorant generation," a generation of know-nothings, incipient barbarians lacking all knowledge of who they are and where they came from. See e.g., http://www.mindingthecampus.org/2016/02/how-a-generation-lost-its-common-culture/ . Some major topics in Stark's book include: 1.) Why was the fall of Rome the single most beneficial event in the rise of Western civilization? 2.) Why were the "Dark Ages" an era of progress and innovation that included the invention of capitalism by Catholic monks? 3.) How did global warming during Medieval times play a major role in the rise of the West, while the global cooling of the Little Ice Age killed half the population of Europe? 4.) Why is there a myth about a "scientific revolution" in the 17th century, when in fact there was simply the continuation of normal scientific progress that began in Christian universities during the 12th century? 5.) How did the Reformation not result in religious freedom, but instead produce religious persecution? 6.) Why did Europe become impoverished as world-wide colonies drained wealth and brought down the Spanish empire? 7.) How did China, once so far ahead of Europe in early times, become so backward and famine-ridden by the time the Portuguese reached China in 1517? 8.) How was it possible for a handful of British officials to rule the Indian subcontinent? 9.) How was it possible for 150 men and 15 horses to defeat millions of Aztecs? 10.) Why were the indigenous peoples of North America still living in a stone age culture only 500 years ago while the West had been smelting iron for thousands of years? 11.) Why has the Islamic world been backward throughout its history? 12.) Why were the Nordic countries so important in the development of the West, as when the Vikings sacked Kiev and when their descendants conquered England and Ireland? All of these questions are explored and answered as Stark traces the history of ideas that differentiated the West from all other peoples. Stark writes clearly and concisely and compelling about this grand sweep of history.

Chiarezza di idee e di esposizione in una coerente sintesi critica della storia. Per chiunque sia interessato a conoscere le traiettorie storiche dell'uomo ma sopratutto per coloro che vogliono comprendere lo stato attuale del mondo

Tiene ideas interesantes y originales, y se sale del pensamiento dominante. Tiene una visión muy negativa de la historia de España, en apariencia poco fundamentada.

Very informative and well documented. Many things we have been taught are just plain wrong. History is still the best proof.

Stark provides a very convincing and thoroughly researched case for the rise of Western Civilization. He brilliantly shatters many of history's greatest myths and proves: - how backwards and anti-progressive the Romans were; - how the Dark Ages were actually an era of tremendous scientific, technological, and economic progress; - how the "Scientific Revolution" was actually birthed centuries early in the supposed "Dark Ages"; - how the ideas and practice of Christianity have been, overwhelmingly, the greatest force for good in the world, and how it birthed the idea and culture of progress that led to modernity

Interested in a non-politically correct historic account of Western Civilisation? Well, Stark's “How The West Won” book is by all means an excellent start, for it dismantles several relevant “truths” dished out into today's mainstream dogmata. Instead of the usual root dismissal, Stark takes us back over two millennia to show how the unique western concept of God paved way for a triumphal civilisation. A God that bequeathed humanity with “free will”, the necessary “tool” to the unravelling of natural phenomena and hence the pursue of knowledge that begets science, that begets technology! In this wonderful over two millennia journey, here and there, dogmatic “truths” are challenged on substantiated terms, such as why the so called Dark Ages were not so dark after all! As for the “whys”, you've come this far, so I won't be a spoiler..... Excellent account, easy read, five stars, (because there are no more to award).