Description: The Golden Thread Volume One: The Ancient World and Christendom. Beginning with the seminal culture of the classical Greeks and the Hellenic expansion, followed by the rise and dominance Rome and the emergence of medieval Christendom, before culminating with the Renaissance, Volume One explores the unfolding of early Western history, laying the foundation for the complex historical narratives that arise during the modern period.
Brief description: James Hankins is Professor of History at Harvard University, where he teaches Western intellectual history, the history of the classical tradition, and the Italian Renaissance. His prize-winning book, Virtue Politics: Soulcraft and Statecraft in Renaissance Italy, was published by the Belknap Press of Harvard University in November 2019.
Review Quotes: "...The Golden Thread comes as a history, an argument, a treasure hoard. Happy is the student who will have a semester to study this magnificent book. Happy, too, is the general reader who stands, as one on the threshold of the Louvre, preparing to enter the shining galleries that lie ahead."
--The Wall Street Journal
"The Golden Thread is simply levels above ordinary textbooks. It's a comprehensive history of Western civilization that is less a standard textbook than the mature statement of an especially thoughtful scholar."
--National Review
"...undoubtedly the book of the year."
--Claremont Review of Books
"Highly recommend....Historian James Hankins argues that understanding the history of the Western tradition is the only way to preserve civilization."
--Coleman Hughes, The Free Press
"It is a masterpiece--staggeringly learned and judicious in its handling of Western civilization's glories and failings."
--Compact
"A magnificent, detailed overview of the evolution of the West from antiquity to the Renaissance."
--George Weigel, Denver Catholic
"In this book live thousands of years of exquisitely rendered thought, wisdom, sacrifice, beauty and adventure."
--The Spectator World
"The Golden Thread is an excellent addition to books on Western Civilization that already exist, but also an advancement on what has come before."
--Law & Liberty
"The Golden Thread is a history of near-run survivals and improbable resurrections. It's also a noble part of that history, as are its authors. They can count their job well done."
--Spencer A. Klavan, Claremont Review of Books
"This book is a masterclass of the Western tradition...If [Chinese Westernizers] had sought inspiration from the best of Western political culture as discussed in Hankins' brilliant book...China's history would have taken a different, more desirable turn."
--The China Review