An enlightening and lively interpretation of an important but neglected historical period.
A nonfiction book examines the rise of Christianity in the Roman Empire during a time of crisis.
As Holmes observes in this concise and astute account of the Roman Empire’s implausible transformation into the world’s most dominant superpower, the growth of Christianity was breakneck. Between C.E. 200 and 300, the Christian population increased from 200,000 to more than 6 million. A half-century later, it had ballooned to 30 million, making Christians the majority. A once-prohibited faith seen as so inconsistent with the demands of civic life that its adherents were brutally persecuted, Christianity became the official religion of Rome. The author focuses his rigorously researched study on the question of Christianity’s reversal of fortunes in light of a historical crisis that precipitated it—the half-century between 235 and 285 was a time of great instability and emergency, one over which 26 emperors presided. Rome suffered terrible losses at the hands of its increasingly powerful enemies, was all but bankrupt, grappled with internecine discord and revolt, and was ravaged by plagues. But two emperors in particular, Diocletian and Constantine, oversaw a great “Roman Revolution,” in which the empire’s military and financial power were restored, and a cultural rejuvenation was affected by the popular acceptance of Christianity, which served as an antidote to widespread disillusionment: “Christianity answered this need by providing an appealingly fresh and vibrant message, with its focus on one true god whose aim was to save humanity. This eschatological vision was presented with a sense of urgency by early Christians who genuinely believed the end of the world was approaching—something which must have seemed very tangible as Rome faced collapse.” In this first installment of a series, Holmes helpfully focuses on a period generally overlooked by scholarly literature. And while his writing can sometimes favor clichés—many readers will wince at phrases like game changer—his prose is accessibly clear. Especially given the work’s pithiness—he covers a remarkable swath of historical terrain in well under 300 pages—this is an impressively illuminating contribution to the genre.
An enlightening and lively interpretation of an important but neglected historical period.Pub Date: July 18, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-73978-650-2
Page Count: 308
Publisher: Puttenham Press Ltd
Review Posted Online: Sept. 20, 2022
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A short, smart analysis of perhaps the most famous passage in American history reveals its potency and unfulfilled promise.
Words that made a nation.
Isaacson is known for expansive biographies of great thinkers (and Elon Musk), but here he pens a succinct, stimulating commentary on the Founding Fathers’ ode to “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” His close reading of the Declaration of Independence’s second sentence, published to mark the 250th anniversary of the document’s adoption, doesn’t downplay its “moral contradiction.” Thomas Jefferson enslaved hundreds of people yet called slavery “a cruel war against human nature” in his first draft of the Declaration. All but 15 of the document’s 56 signers owned enslaved people. While the sentence in question asserted “all men are created equal” and possess “unalienable rights,” the Founders “consciously and intentionally” excluded women, Native Americans, and enslaved people. And yet the sentence is powerful, Isaacson writes, because it names a young nation’s “aspirations.” He mounts a solid defense of what ought to be shared goals, among them economic fairness, “moral compassion,” and a willingness to compromise. “Democracy depends on this,” he writes. Isaacson is excellent when explaining how Enlightenment intellectuals abroad influenced the founders. Benjamin Franklin, one of the Declaration’s “five-person drafting committee,” stayed in David Hume’s home for a month in the early 1770s, “discussing ideas of natural rights” with the Scottish philosopher. Also strong is Isaacson’s discussion of the “edits and tweaks” made to Jefferson’s draft. As recommended by Franklin and others, the changes were substantial, leaving Jefferson “distraught.” Franklin, who emerges as the book’s hero, helped establish municipal services, founded a library, and encouraged religious diversity—the kind of civic-mindedness that we could use more of today, Isaacson reminds us.
A short, smart analysis of perhaps the most famous passage in American history reveals its potency and unfulfilled promise.Pub Date: Nov. 18, 2025
ISBN: 9781982181314
Page Count: 80
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Aug. 29, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2025
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SEEN & HEARD
For Howard Zinn, long-time civil rights and anti-war activist, history and ideology have a lot in common. Since he thinks that everything is in someone's interest, the historian—Zinn posits—has to figure out whose interests he or she is defining/defending/reconstructing (hence one of his previous books, The Politics of History). Zinn has no doubts about where he stands in this "people's history": "it is a history disrespectful of governments and respectful of people's movements of resistance." So what we get here, instead of the usual survey of wars, presidents, and institutions, is a survey of the usual rebellions, strikes, and protest movements. Zinn starts out by depicting the arrival of Columbus in North America from the standpoint of the Indians (which amounts to their standpoint as constructed from the observations of the Europeans); and, after easily establishing the cultural disharmony that ensued, he goes on to the importation of slaves into the colonies. Add the laborers and indentured servants that followed, plus women and later immigrants, and you have Zinn's amorphous constituency. To hear Zinn tell it, all anyone did in America at any time was to oppress or be oppressed; and so he obscures as much as his hated mainstream historical foes do—only in Zinn's case there is that absurd presumption that virtually everything that came to pass was the work of ruling-class planning: this amounts to one great indictment for conspiracy. Despite surface similarities, this is not a social history, since we get no sense of the fabric of life. Instead of negating the one-sided histories he detests, Zinn has merely reversed the image; the distortion remains.
Pub Date: Jan. 1, 1979
ISBN: 0061965588
Page Count: 772
Publisher: Harper & Row
Review Posted Online: May 26, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 1979
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