Lessons from Fallen Civilizations

a Comparative History

War is not merely a material struggle, but more often a referendum on the spirit. No nation has ever survived once its citizenry ceased to believe its culture worth saving.

Victor Davis Hanson

What were the two times in history when Islam nearly conquered and destroyed Western Christendom?

Why did Bin Laden pick September 11th as the day to attack the West?

On September 12, 2001, like most Americans, I remember that I was riveted to the major television networks’ coverage of 9/11, where normal programming was suspended and where the coverage alternated among desultory shots of the collapsed towers at ground zero, Mayor Giuliani’s press conferences, and fatuous man-on-the street interviews. One such interview, albeit extremely brief, screamed Victor Davis Hanson’s point referenced in the quotation above, so much so that I was surprised that one of the major television networks had failed to see the negative reflection upon its own relentless America-is-the-problem sophistry and elected to run the damning footage. This segment was a catalogue of New Yorkers’ responses to the attacks which included a young male student from one the city’s most exclusive, private grammar schools presumably reserved for gifted children. Out of the mouth of this babe came an oracle for the ages, “Of course, before (the attacks) we all thought that the cops and the military were bad but then after (the attacks) we said—who’s going to protect us?”

The genesis of Lessons from Fallen Civilizations comes out of the above child’s unguarded, uncensored remark and from the first article I ever read by the classicist, Victor Davis Hanson, one written shortly after 9/11, one which I have quoted above. My reading of his observation is that no civilization can long endure once its citizenry ceases to passionately believe in its culture and is not ready to make the necessary sacrifices to defend it.

In compiling this book, I’ve come to the conclusion that Hanson is not only correct, but that he is issuing a fear-inspiring message for our times and for this civilization, one made abundantly clear by the, unwitting statement from the gifted child from one of New York’s privileged families.

Lessons from Fallen Civilizations is in the process of being completed for publication.