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Greenblatt doesn't quite prove his ambitious assertion; but produced an interesting, and thought-provoking, book. A very interesting piece of intellectual history. Recommended.
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Interesting, enlightening, well-written. Although some material was familiar to me, quite a bit was new territory. I was impressed and especially taken by his descriptions of the struggle to save ancient texts, including discussions of work in the monk copying rooms, the search for hidden texts, Epicurianism, intellectual battles, and influence of Lucretius's text, On the Nature of Things. I actually was quite startled by the advanced thinking. Just the idea that ancient thinkers had figured out
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This is a very detailed and well researched piece about Poggio's discovery. The stunning story of Hypatia really intrigued me, as it marked the end of classical antiquity. It was also interesting to read about many features of the Christian vision that were stolen from much more ancient pagan stories. The way in which Christianity sought to replace pagan thought, culture, and tradition really intrigued me. By page 204 the book really gets into detail about what this discovery did for modern civi
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Marvelous, the proof of the singular role of Lucretious to the Modern was not so clear, but the exploration of the history of ideas was compelling reading, wonderful narrative flair
Fabulous. I ran straight to the bookstore and bought several more books to dive into Renaissance history, and Roman/Greek philosophy.
I had a hard time getting through this one, I think I didn't like the narrator much. I expected to love this book, but it felt like a slog to me, so maybe I had too high of expectations. Since I do have it on audio, I might try again in awhile, maybe I just wasn't in the mood for it this summer.
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Sep 30, 2011
David Monroe
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