LESSON ONE: Exceptions to the Rule

5/11/2018

History of the Ancient World: A Global Perspective

Look at ancient history from a fresh, innovative vantage point with the 48 lectures of History of the Ancient World: A Global Perspective. Historian and Professor Gregory S.

GET SOME PERSPECTIVE: Sign up for The Great Courses, History of the Ancient World, A Global Perspective. Lec- ture 41 discusses the problem of dating the end of the Roman Empire. Check out the first forty in your spare time for a good review of many of the previous course’s historical topics as well. Choose your medium at http:// www.thegreatcourses.com/courses/history-of-the-ancient- world-a-global-perspective.html.

GET THE APP: Roman Emperors with sporadic ties to Christianity? Sure, there is an app for that! The Edict of Milan for Android devices features the original text of the decree along with other articles about Constantine the Great and his birthplace in modern day Serbia.
NOTE: It looks like this app has gone the way of the Constantine's Empire!

TAKE A TAXI: Call a surly dispatcher and then wait for a dingy yellow cab with a broken credit card reader that might never come. If it does, take a ride and ponder the mobile ride sharing revolution and the impending destruction of the cab business. Feeling bad? Then relive the glory days of the industry by watching Taxi, the hit 1970s TV show. Its available on Hulu. While viewing, try not to think about all the cable TV operators you are putting out of business.

Taxi

TAXI is a half-hour comedy series that centers around the eclectic staff of a New York city cab company. While trying to deal with tyrannical dispatcher Louie De Palma (Danny DeVito), they build friendships as they struggle for success in other careers, love and life.

LISTEN TO THE BOSS: No music encapsulates the feelings of loss when an economy leaves people behind like the early works of Bruce Springsteen. Give a listen to 1975’s Born to Run in its entirety and revel in the desperation and dark quasi-enthusiasm for the middle-class way of life at the dawning of the “me generation.”

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RIDE A HORSE, READ SOME ECONOMICS, MAKE A LITTLE LOVE: Joseph Schumpeter supposedly set out to be the eminent economist in the world, the greatest horseman in Austria, and the paramount paramour in Vienna. You can read Prophet of Innovation, Joseph Schumpeter and Creative Destruction (2007) by Thomas K. McCraw to figure out which two of the three he felt he achieved. McCraw’s book is the definitive tome regarding the angel of economic demolition. If you can’t get through all 719 pages without destructing yourself, feel free to create some efficiencies and read this summary by Thomas Leonard of Princeton: https://www.princeton.edu/~tleonard/papers/McCraw.pdf.

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HAVE A SLICE OF ORANGE: For an idea of the relationship between Gaul and Rome, visit the Provencal city of Orange in southern France. The city houses two relics of the Roman occupation. First the Triumphal Arch, built to honor Caesar’s legions, who conquered and settled the area. Second, the statue of Emperor Augustus inside of the magnificent amphitheater with his boot being kissed by a Gallic slave. The symbolism isn’t terribly subtle, and you will note that the slave, like the rest of Rome’s subjects, has since disappeared. If you are looking for subtlety, the local wines from Chateuaneuf du Pape fit the bill and pair well with contemplating crumbling empires.

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