Book Review: Norberg (2025) “Peak Human”
Book Review: Summary, Chapter Learnings, Select Quotes, Additional Materials
Summary: Why I Read This Book
If you are fascinated by a story that has a surprising beginning, glorious middle, and tragic ending, this book has six (and maybe seven) such stories to tell. Whether we are talking about the stories of individual people, historic civilizations, or perhaps even biological species, the ends can be heartbreaking. Johan Norberg is an entertaining and informative storyteller of the rise and falls of golden ages of seven civilizations and a handful of their most famous individual characters.
Here is a summary of some quick chapter highlights for me:
Chapter 1: Athens – From the well-told stories of the birth of philosophy, democracy, wars, plagues, as well as the story of the exiled Athenian general Thucydides (460-400 BC) who is considered the father of scientific history that provides down to earth explanations, rather than appealing to the gods
Chapter 2: Rome – From a city of refugees to a machine for coercive expansion, and then the story of Cato the Younger (95-46 BC) and his writings on liberty.
Chapter 3: The Abbasid Caliphate – From the stories of the birth of religion(s), to merchants more powerful than viziers, to the houses of wisdom, as well as the story of the seventh Abbasid caliph, al-Mamun (786-833) who made Greek-to-Arabic translation project a priority of his reign.
Chapter 4: Song China – From exploding commerce with canals connecting two rivers, multi-mast giant (for the time) ships, moveable type printing, as well as the story of Zhu Xi (1130-1200) whose neo-Confucian philosophy placed a premium on individuals cultivating their character through education and a metaphysics to explain the world without recourse to supernatural.
Chapter 5: Renaissance Italy – The inspiring stories of China and the Mongol Empire told by Marco Polo (1254 – 1324) arrived at just the right time, as legal battles for authority between royalty and religious leaders advanced property rights for merchants (the influencers courted by both) in Italian city-states, and rediscovered ancients texts on philosophy, medicine, astronomy, mathematics and more fueled humanists and intellectual openness.
Chapter 6: The Dutch Republic – From a soggy, water-logged bog of a place using property rights to attract immigrants to become free farmers and then transitioning to become the Dutch Republic, a global power with military and merchant fleets, as well as the story of Hugo Grotius (1583-1645) who developed internationals laws of the sea, property, contracts, and self-defense.
Chapter 7: The Anglo Sphere – William of Orange (1650-1702), who led the Dutch invasion of Britian and the Glorious Revolutions of 1688, which in turn led to putting limits to both royal and religious powers over free citizens with property rights, and advanced ideas of liberty and freedom that lead to the American Revolution, is the story of a golden age that seems now to exhibit the tell-tale signs of decline.
The introduction to this fascinating book lays the foundation for why it is important to study history, and the conclusion makes explicit the patterns from history while allowing that the future may very well be a surprising twist on these historical patterns.
David Gurteen (https://www.linkedin.com/in/dgurteen/) who is well-known in knowledge management, organizational learning, and leadership facilitation circles, recommended this book to me. David also studies better conversations, history, and the unfolding universe – topics of great interest to me. Larry Hiner (ISSIP Ambassador), whose interests include advancing human dignity, introduced me to David, and suggested David and I have periodic conversations about our mutual interests, especially the past, present, and future of better communications and positive sum conversations.
Chapter Learnings
Introduction
Seven of the world’s great civilizations are explored: Athens, Rome, Abbasid Caliphate, Song China, Renaissance Italy, Dutch Republic, and Anglosphere; and each of their “golden ages” combine cultural creativity, scientific discoveries, technological achievements, and economic growth. While other civilizations might have been chosen, these seven highlight the importance of the free flow of people, products, and perspectives across boundaries, with noteworthy periods of peace, secure property rights, and rule of law. The absence of orthodoxies imposed from the top is also noteworthy. Californian historian Jack Goldstone calls episodes of temporary growth ‘efflorescences’ – not quite reaching a golden age status. Patterns of decline are also explored – growing orthodoxies from political/military, economic, and intellectual elites – the self-interest of incumbents over group-freedom-interests (so-called ‘Caldwell’s Law’ by economic historian Joel Mokyr). Some cultures are better than others in providing positive-sum games instead of zero-sum, with far more freedom and far less coercion. The rise of golden ages throughout history is a source of hope for humanity, and their declines highlight multiple warning signs.
Chapter 1: Athens: Democrats, Dreamers, and other Deviants
Athens, Greece was often a target of domination by the Spartans from the near west and the Persians from the further east. Athenians and other seafaring Greeks, separated by rocky cliffs that made land-based invasions difficult, experimented with independent city-states, but interconnected by trade. The local infantries, when called upon to unite, were formidable for the innovation of the phalanx, tightly packed rows of men with shields, spears and short swords, often eight rows deep, and difficult to penetrate. The soldiers known as hoplites were mostly farmers, called into action when needed, but also demanding a say in political decisions – fight and stay independent, or surrender and pay tribute. The Ionian innovation of coinage allowed a flourishing of trade among city states. Attica, the land around Athens, had poor soil so trade was a must. Solon (630-560 BC) aimed for rule of law, isonomia, equally for rich or poor. While it is hard to summarize the many innovations and contributions (shipbuilding – trade, open cities – immigration, phalanx – warfare, the Assembly – democracy), periods of peace (including the birth of theatre and philosophy), battles and wars (with Sparta, with Persians, at Marathon, at Salamis, Peloponnesian), struggles between democratic principle and authoritarian regimes, the rise and high-point happened (recorded by Pericles (495-425 BC)), and the decline came (recorded by Thucydides (460-400 BC)). The Athenian golden age being replaced by the militaristic empire at the time of Aristotle (384-322 BC) and Alexander the Great (356-323 BC), sowing the seed for the Roman golden age to follow.
Chapter 2: Rome: Melting Pot of Marble
Around 753 BC, Rome started as a city of refugees – all were welcome to become citizens, be protected by laws, own property, engage in commerce, and marry another Roman. Foreigners were welcome to become Roman citizens, either by special service to Rome or serving in the auxiliary military for 25 years. In 212 BC, emperor Caracalla declared that all non-slaves through the whole republic, regardless of background or ethnicity were Roman citizens. Romans believed in integrating people and ideas, while replacing their own practices with better practices from others they conquered or absorbed. Cicero (106-143 BC) was a stateman and lawyer, and one of the greatest writers on the topic of liberty and justice for all. Julius Caesar (100-44 BC) set in motion the end of rule of law by declaring himself dictator for life. Cato the Younger (95-46 BC) was one of the last believers in Roman republicanism to battle with Caesar’s armies, and when defeated chose to take his own life than give in to the new order. The Roman Republic was transformed by ambitious generals into the Roman Empire. The long, slow decline included pandemics (165 AD, Antonine Plague), the end of the Pax Roma with the death of Marcus Aurelius – the last good emperor of Rome (180 AD), and the pandemic (249 AD, Plague of the Cyprian). Augustine of Hippo (354-430 AD) developed the modern Christian ideas and wrote ‘The City of God.’ In the end, openness and rule of law by the people with regional representatives were replaced by orthodoxy and the imperial emperors with vested interests, personal ambitions and greed. Later, in 476 AD, Germans (General Odoacer, client of the real emperor in the Eastern Roman Empire) deposed the last Western Roman emperor. The Eastern Roman Empire (and Byzantine culture) survived about another 1000 years before the invasion of the Ottoman Turks.
Chapter 3: The Abbasid Caliphate: At the Crossroads of the Universe
By 654, the Byzantine and Persian empires had fallen to Muslim Arabs, some thirty years after the Prophet Muhammad (570-632) migrated to Medina from Mecca to escape persecution. As Islam spread in the early days, the farmers and merchants conquered were allowed to keep their property and religious practices, by paying a special poll tax, and only government and military resources were confiscated and redirected. In 747, Abu Muslim (probably a Persian former slave) raised the black flag of the Abbasids. In 750, he won a decisive battle against the Umayyad army in Zab, northern Iraq, and al-Saffah (721-754) of the Abbasid family claimed the caliph, beginning the Abbasid Caliphate. The second caliph, al-Mansur (714-775) wasted no time killing Abu Muslim, and like Augustus in Rome was an infamous executioner and impressive stateman. Al-Mansur’s ‘City of Peace’ became known as Baghdad, and a Pax Islamica (like Pax Romana) followed. Baghdad (known as ‘the crossroads of the universe’) had over a million people, the largest city in the world, with vibrant markets trading goods from across the Abbasid Caliphate. Merchants were a privileged class, and even the Quran praised truthful and trustworthy merchants, encouraging trade by mutual consent. The Abbasid ‘Houses of Wisdom’ promoted intellectual flourishing building on worthy ideas from all previous cultures, as well as accelerating the economic flourishing. The Arab thinker al-Kindi (801-873) wrote more than 250 books on topics including mathematics, medicine, and philosophy, and proclaimed ‘appreciating the truth… even if it comes from races and nations different from us.’ A great scientific revolution happened powered by minds of Avicenna (980-1037), al-Khwarizmi (books on algebra and algorithms), Ibn al-Haytham (965-104) on optics and the scientific method. Nevertheless, by 1065, orthodoxy was replacing openness, and ‘houses of wisdom’ were replaced by ‘madrasas’ teaching orthodox versions of Islam, as Shia and Sunni battle lines were drawn. The theologian al-Ghazali (1058-1111) provided the philosophical and logical foundations for a ‘might makes right’ and orthodoxy cultural change away from openness and tolerance of other religions and beliefs; and like Augustine, al-Ghazali declared dangerous ideas and books should be banned to protect youthful minds. It was too late when the Andalusian Ibn Rushd (1126-1198, latinized name Averroes) refuted the teachings of al-Ghazali by showing Islam and Aristotelianism compatibility. Still, the intellectual works of Averroes would help later fire up the imaginations of the European Renaissance. The Mongol leader Genghis Khan (1162-1227) also contributed to the fall of the Abbasid Caliphate.
Chapter 4: Song China: On the Threshold of Modernity
A handscroll painting of a twelfth century Chinese city and bustling marketplace – some call the priceless work of art the “Mona Lisa of China” – is famously known as “Along the River During the Qingming Festiva” and this long, linear painting depicts 814 people engaged in a wide range of activities. In 960, Zhao Kuangyin (927-976) had his loyal troops insist he usurp the throne from the child ruler, and become emperor under the name of Taizu. Hailing from the Song Prefecture, the emperor Taizu insisted on civic over military rule, as military rule had led to civil wars and warlords. China demilitarized as old generals retired as regional governors, new generals were rotated to prevent power accumulation. Like the expansion of Rome and Arab, Taizu redirected conquered regional government and military, but left farmers and commerce largely unharmed. Taizu ordered any looters in his military to be beheaded. Taizu’s brother, Taizong (939-997) established rigorous education and examinations to become a government official, including the study of Confucian classics, history, law and mathematics. Names of students were hidden, and two examiners needed to score each student to ensure a meritocracy would replace blood lines in local government. Demilitarization, a volunteer army, highly skilled government officials, mobility for peasants willing to farm new lands, improved transportation systems as well as incentives and taxes on commerce, led to an explosion of opportunities, innovation, and wealth. Gunpowder, the compass, the printing press and more advancements were well ahead of European technologies. In fact, wealth was so abundant that foot binding of woman became the fashion in wealthy families, a practices that continued until 1912. The population, innovation and wealth explosion were unstoppable, until 1127 when invaders from the north (Manchurians – Jin dynasty) sacked Song’s capital city of Kaifeng. Still, Song China as a whole region remained rich until in 1227, Genghis Khan attacked the Jin, and by 1234 attacked the Song region; finally by 1268 Kublai Khan (the grandson of Genghis) was near completion of the conquest, and by 1279, the last remnants of the Song navy were destroyed. Many Song loyalists chose suicide for themselves and their families rather than submit to Mongol rule, despite Kublai Khan’s interest in keeping the Song wealth engine humming – with the help of Song leaders. Eventually the Ming dynasty was able to break free of Mongol occupation, but their authoritarian rule and runaway inflation prevented the reignition of the great Song wealth and prosperity engine.
Chapter 5: Renaissance Italy: The Rebirth of Law, Literature, and Libertas
The tug-of-war between Church (popes, bishops) and State (kings, princes) gave rise to both side documenting laws that ultimately led to the rebirth of the legal system in Europe. The Italian city-states like the Greek city-states before were perfectly situated to take advantage of seafaring trade, immigration, and wealth creation. Financial innovations including double-entry bookkeeping, joint stock companies, insurance, bills of exchange and systematized foreign exchange markets accelerated wealth creation. Europe was benefiting from an influx of trade and ideas from China and the Arab world, stronger systems of law and finance, as well as expanding cities with a wealthy middle-class, not part of the Church or royalty. While the Mongols had devastated the great cities of the Abbasid Caliphate (Baghdad) and Song China (Hangzhou), Europe lost Kiev to the Mongols in1241 and then Poland and Hungary were laid waste, but perhaps the real reason the Mongols turned back was the paltry takings in Medieval Europe – there was not great wealth easily at hand. Of course, by the 14th century, things were beginning to change more rapidly – thanks in part to the Venetian innovation of the glass mirrors replacing bronze mirrors, and individuals could see themselves clearly for the first time – perhaps changing human psychology. The Black Death also arrived, and suddenly a large part of the working populations was gone, and serfs demanded more rights and got them, by 1450 serfdom had been abolished in most of Western Europe. By 1527, wars were back, and the states aligned either Catholic or Protestant orthodoxy to purge and ban heretical ideas.
Chapter 6: The Dutch Republic: Trade, Tolerance, and Other Treasures of the Shore
Reclaiming land from the sea requires a people to master an “improve-weakest-link” mindset. The chain is only as strong as the weakest link, and the farmlands are only as safe as the weakest dyke. To attract people to harvest land from the sea, immigrants were given the right to their land. In the thirteen century, large scale reclamation with dykes, pumps, and windmills, and a system of signaling to bring emergency help to bear on any weak links at any time, night or day, fare or stormy. Better technologies, practices, and institutions co-evolved, providing a wealth creation flywheel that could afford importing goods, immigrating people, openness to new ideas, and international trade. Aristocratic outsiders often mocked the lowlands as a miserable place with no great history or accomplishments; merely ‘a collection of shit and mud’ or ‘the indigested vomit of the sea.’ Wealth led to urbanization, universities, publishing, and art flourishing. Timber imported from the Baltics led to a shipbuilding industry and expanded global exploration and trade. When the Habsburg ruler of most of Europe at that time – Philip II (1527-1598) – tried to tax the Dutch more to pay for his large Spanish military, and bring Catholic orthodoxy to the Dutch, who were diverse religiously but with significant Calvinist population, Philip needed to appoint a Habsburg royal to the role of stadtholder, the highest executive official the Dutch region, including Holland, Zeeland, and Utrecht. Philip II appointed his father’s loyal advisor, the German-born William of Orange (not to be confused with his grandson, the William of Orange, who married his own cousin Mary I, and together William and Mary ruled England). The first William of Orange (1533-1584) became better known as William the Silent, given his inclinations to just let things be, and then later, before being assassinated, to actively oppose Philip, leading to the start of the Eighty Year War (1566/1568-1609) between Spain, the Dutch, and various allies. The main difference was that during the protracted war, Spain was going broke, and the Dutch were becoming wealthier – both sides losing their appetite for continued battles, they signed the Twelve-Year Truce in 1609. The emerging Dutch state had already proclaimed it “declaration of independence” in 1581. Hugo Grotius (1583-1645) was a noteworthy polymath whose political philosophy on natural rights (fundamental human rights, free of religious and royal domination) and social contracts had noteworthy impact on the better-known English and Swiss/French philosophers such as Hobbes (1588-1679). Locke (1632-1704), and Rosseau (1712-1788). Of the six founding philosophers of the Enlightenment (Descartes, Spinoza, Hobbes, Locke, Bayle, and Leibniz) four lived in or spent time in the Dutch Republic. While international trade by a seafaring nation with colonies was clearly an essential component of growing Dutch wealth, Enlightenment historians also see tolerance under constant tensions which allowed commercial, intellectual, and artistic flourishing to take place raising the wages and living conditions of highly literate workers and merchants. The end came when England formed the Triple Alliance with Sweden and Netherlands, to go against the French and Spanish, but later all turned against the Dutch. In 1715, the Dutch Republic declared bankruptcy. However, well before the collapse of 1715, in 1689, the Dutch ideals were already being transplanted into England, as described in the next chapter.
Chapter 7: The Anglo Sphere: Industry, Individualism, Impertinence
In one of the strangest twists of history, King James II of England (1603-1701) , after converting to Catholicism and becoming increasingly unpopular for authoritarianism, was deposed in the Glorious Revolution of 1688. James II was thwarted in his attempts to align state and religious power and thereby overturn the institutions that protected life, liberty, and property of the common man. He was deposed by his nephew, William III of Orange (1650-1702) stadtholder of the Dutch Republic, who was invited to invade and become King, as well as to marry James’s daughter (a Protestant), and so began the rule of William and Mary. William III had distributed some 60,000 copies of a pamphlet to justify the invasion. The Enlightenment philosopher John Locke (1632-1704) was on the same ship that delivered Mary (soon to be queen) back on English shores in 1689. Locke’s goal was to set up a lasting constitution (“Declaration of Rights” and “Bill of Rights”) to secure civil rights ‘and the liberty and property of all the subjects of the nation’ and any new royalty would be subject to the law of the people as established by a bicameral parliament. Since taxes were primarily used to grow the navy and military, entrepreneurs leveraging financial markets built out the roads, bridges, canals, harbors, and rail systems that powered Great Britian and the British Empire. Colonies, global commerce, industrialization, urbanization, and voluntary associations took on local health, education, and security projects, fueled by wealth creation and population growth. Books, skills, and a growing culture of scientific and technological innovations were improving productivity and making entrepreneurs rich, Josiah Wedgewood (1730-1795) with pottery, Richard Arkrwight (1732-1792) with spinning frame, and James Watt (1736-1819) with steam engines. Life expectancy jumped from 35 years in 1700 to 46 years by 1800, and Edward Jenner (1749-1823) with smallpox vaccine contributing. Increasingly literate and skilled common people could afford cotton clothes, underwear, needles, thread, scissors, candles, glass, wood, nails, paper, newspapers, books, tea, and sugar. Great Britian had become the industrial engine of the world and acquired a global empire of colonies on which the sun never set (America, Australia and New Zealand, Hong Kong, Singapore, India, and African Colonies). The hypocrisy of free men with property rights in Great Britian gaining wealth through the coercive “might makes right” slave trade and destruction of indigenous populations in the colonies led to anti-imperialism debates in parliament and civic associations. Slavery was abolished in Britian in 1823. The North American colonies were settled by individuals from Great Britian and Europe who sought even greater religious freedom and economic opportunity to own property, and found a land only sparsely populated by indigenous people with primitive weapons. The United States of America’s 1776 Declaration of Independence, following in the tradition of the 1688 Glorius Revolution, following in the tradition of the 1581 Dutch Act of Abjuration, following the school of Salamanca, and on and on back through the golden ages when religious and intellectual freedoms as well as markets, global commerce, and property rights of the common man flourished – no special privileges of law for an aristocracy as a common goal. The favorite play of George Washington (1732-1799) was “Cato: A Tragedy” – with themes of liberty, republicanism, and stoic virtue. Immigration to America boomed, and the 1862 Homestead Act giving newly arrived farmers property rights to lands they cultivated and demarked as their own. The Sears, Roebuck & Co. catalog (1888–1993) revolutionized American retail as the “Wish Book,” bringing a vast array of goods to rural homes, including clothing, tools, and even mail-order homes. America’s industrial might help Britian and France defeat aggressors in two world wars, leading to a Pax Americana – where major military conflicts were largely proxy wars of two nuclear weapons powered superpowers – the USA and USSR. Now, many think, both at home and abroad, that the golden age of USA dominance and the Anglo Sphere is in rapid decline.
Conclusion: Further Rise or Inevitable Decline?
The rise and decline of the seven golden ages (Athens, Rome, Abbasid, Caliphate, Song China, Renaissance Italy, Dutch Republic, Anglo Sphere) followed some characteristic patterns. The rise required imitation and innovation to create an optimistic self-identity, and belief that the next generation would have the same or a better life. The falls required a wide range of natural and human-made crises to create pessimistic self-doubt, and belief that the next generation would have the same or a worsened life. First, the rise requires openness to the rest of the world for trade, migration, and intellectual exchange. Second, the rule of law supports free markets and free minds. Third, the openness and freedom fuel optimism and pride in a self-identity that continues attract immigrants, until “The Great Status Quo Filter” combines with crises to turn back the openness and freedom for more and more of the population until pessimism replaces optimism and the inevitable decline takes firm hold of the population. The rulers and elites abandon curiosity for controls.
The law of the land imposed by rulers and the elites becomes one of “might makes right,” “enough is never enough,” and “conform to my orthodoxy” or get out while you can. Free speech is replaces by orthodoxies and free markets by economic controls. International trade declines. And so the pressing questions is what about the Anglo Sphere and the USA? The backlash against globalization and immigration is apparent. Both the right and the left have their orthodoxies. The author suggests we stay open to surprises, and if the Anglo Sphere should continue in decline, we might be surprised by the next golden age from China, Turkey, Iran, Poland, Vietnam, India, or even Africa, with its large and young population and massive resources. However, given acceleration of digital technologies globally, perhaps what comes next is even more surprising than any lesson history has taught us to date.
Select Quotes
BiblioN2025 Norberg J (2025) Peak Human:
What We Can Learn From History’s Greatest Civilizations
Via: David_Gurteen
URL: https://www.amazon.com/Peak-Human-Historys-Greatest-Civilizations/dp/1838957294
Quotes:
“The battle between freedom and coercion, and between reason and superstition, is not a clash of civilizations. It is a clash within every civilization, and at some level within each of us…. By the way, I should emphasize the question ‘golden age for whom?’ is not just overly sensitive sloganeering. All of the civilizations I describe in this book practiced slavery, all of them denied women basic rights and all took great delight in exterminating neighbouring populations, to the last man, woman, and child.” (pg. 9, Introduction)
“The Assembly of Citizens, made up of all men who were not slaves for foreigners, was given supreme power over all issues… To make sure that the Assembly would not be taken over by a small clique that had conspired in advance, a Council of 500 was instituted, which set the agenda for the Assembly and sometimes prepared specific proposals. Members of the Council were selected by lot, served for a year and could only serve twice during a lifetime. This meant that almost every Athenian would serve at some point.” (p. 27, Ch. 1)
“There was no remorse in 421 BC though, when Athens ended a revolt in the city of Scione, executed the adult men and sold the women and children into slavery. When Athens did the same thing after having conquered the neutral island of Melos, Thucydides records that the Athenian emissary did not even try to justify the actions, but bluntly declared ‘the strong do what they have the power to do and the weak accept what they have to accept.’” (pg. 58, Ch. 1)
“By 500 BC, the Roman Republic had already established itself as one of the strongest cities in central Italy… Tim Cornell has compared the Roman model to ‘a criminal operation that compensates it victims by enrolling them in the gang and inviting them to share the proceeds of future robberies.’ … Rome was the big bully you were best to have on your side.” (pp. 80-81 , Ch. 2)
“Educated Romans studied Plato and Aristotle, and debated and debated whether the Stoics or Epicureans were right. One of the most important works in the Stoic tradition was written by Marcus Aurelius…. Upper-class education in Rome was soon based on a Greek curriculum…” (pg. 89, Ch. 2)
“Where Athens and Rome had been ravaged by plagues, Baghdad suffered from political instability, revolts, and a drier climate. Separatists broke away parts of the empire, and the lack of tax revenue started a process that was similar to what we saw in Rome: rulers began to undermine private property with feudal systems. Military officials started to push out independent farmers. The role of the merchants and private capital was compromised. Abbasid rulers reacted more destructively when this separatism was combined with religious divisions. They felt they had to stamp out other interpretations of Islam, and also learned that a fight for one true interpretation could be used to mobilize supporters. In alliance with the Seljuk Turks, the Abbasid state tool control of religion and debate, and sabotaged its own tradition of tolerance and science. Religious oppression only caused more conflict, and so created more demand for the repression they thought would be conducive to stability. The traditions of science and philosophy rapidly decayed.” (pp. 170-171, Ch. 3)
“In 1620, the English philosopher Francis Bacon wrote there were three great inventions unknown to the ancients that ‘have changed the whole face and stage of things throughout the world’ gunpowder, the compass, and printing. According to Bacon, ‘no empire, no sect, no star, seems to have exerted greater power and influence in human affairs than these three mechanical discoveries’. Karl Marx, in 1861, insisted that ‘these are the three major inventions that foretell the arrival of bourgeois society’, since they blew up the knight class, opened the world market, and created the scientific renaissance. But these three inventions, which Bacon called ‘recent’ and of ‘obscure’ origins, were already in use a thousand years ago by the Chinese along the river during the Qingming festival.” The Chinese printed books, navigated with a magnetic compass and, when they had to fight, they did it with gunpowder. Back then, China was ‘the most intellectually sophisticated country in the world, and the most technologically advanced’, writes Peter Watson in his work on ideas and innovations in history, and adds ‘China’s pre-eminence was probably greater during the Song dynasty (960-1279) than any other time.’” (pp. 177-178, Ch. 4)
“In 1274, Marco Polo, a young Venetian merchant and explorer, reached China after a long journey with his father and uncle. Kublai Khan took a great liking to him and used him as a foreign emissary throughout South East Asia. After seventeen years in Asia, Marco Polo returned to Europe. Venice was at war with Genoa at the time, and Marco Polo was imprisoned in Genoese. He started sharing his stories with a fellow inmate, who wrote them down and turned them into one of the few international bestsellers before the printing press. All over Europe, readers marveled at his descriptions of a magical empire with vast transport networks, money made of paper, and ‘black stones’ that they dug up and burned instead of firewood. Even in decline after the end of the Song dynasty, China seems so incredibly advanced and prosperous…. Visiting the old Song capital of Hangzhou, apparently fifteen times bigger than his native Venice, the thrilled Marco Polo described it as ‘the greatest city which may be found in the world, where so many pleasures may be found that one fancies oneself in paradise.’ And the Yangtzee had ‘a great number of vessels, and more wealth and merchandize than on all the rivers and all the seas of Christendom put together!’ Markets were ‘so well provided with every amenity that it is a veritable marvel.’ … The stories told by Marco Polo and other adventurers, and the exquisite silk, spices and porcelain imported, whetted the European appetite to set sail, to trade and to raid, but most of all to imitate. The insight that very large ships with multiple masts had been built, and could stay at sea for extended periods, spurred innovation. Medieval Europe suddenly stated building…. An even more stimulating import came from the Arabs, as their ideas began to seep into Christianity…. When Christian armies began to take Andalusian cities during the Crusades, the marveled at the wealth, the ordered cityscapes and majestic buildings. But, most importantly, in private and public libraries, they found all the books they had heard rumours of but were never entirely sure existed: almost mythical works by Euclid, Galen, Archimedes, Averroes and Aristotle.” (pp. 222-225, Ch. 5)
“The long controversy over the legacy of a Dominican priest from Sicily, Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274), who quoted Averroes some 500 times, would eventually convince the Church that it was possible to be an Aristotelian without being cut off from Christ. Aquinas’s life’s work was to make Aristotelianism compatible with Christianity, just as Averroes had done for Islam. Aquinas put the Renaissance foot in the medieval door, leaving room for curiosity to slip through.” (pg. 226, Ch. 5)
“In 1075, pope Gregory VII (1020-1085) was ready to put a radical programme into effect. Sensationally, the pope suddenly declared his supremacy over the whole Church and the Church’s supremacy over secular matters, including kings and emperors.” (pg. 228 Ch. 5)
“Through an astonishing series of conquests, marriages, and dumb luck, the Habsburg dynasty, originally from the Tyrol [southern Austria, northern Italy, western Switzerland], had quickly expanded from its power base in Austria and Germany. In 1519, when Charles V was crowned emperor of the Holy Roman Empire, he also inherited Spain… The Spanish army had become the best in Europe… The Habsburg dynasty was also a global empire. From the new colonies in America silver flowed into state coffers… It even had a colony in the Far East, the Philippines, named after Charles’ son Philip, soon to be King Philip II (1527-1598)… In 1554, Philip became King of England and Ireland after marrying Queen Mary I (1516-1558). The Habsburg ambition was nothing less than the establishing of a universal empire, something that would have made it possible to coordinate orthodoxy and repression all over the European continent, and so put an end to intellectual openness and economic experimentation, just like Ming China and the Islamic empires had… …universal ambitions would be frustrated, but not by a powerful, rival monarchy. Just as the Habsburgs were on the cusp of domination, one of the smallest and most unlikely parts of the empire rebelled: a group of maverick merchants and radical Calvinists in the waterlogged Low Countries on the north-western periphery, the strange place where banned books like Galileo’s were still published. The Dutch of all people! … At the end of the Eighty Year’s War between Spain and the United Provinces of the Netherlands, it was the Spanish empire that was depleted and impoverished, having declared state bankruptcy five times. The sodden Dutch periphery, on the other hand, had become a strong, independent country and a military superpower. The band of rebels had become the world’s richest people, and in just two generations they built a world empire… with word-leading artists like Vermeer and Rembrandt, merchants and financiers who created the world’s first modern economy, and printing houses, scientists and philosophers who kickstarted the Enlightenment.” (pp. 286-289, Ch. 6)
“Britian’s progress after 1700 was incredible…. Colonial offshoots that retained the English language and common law, like the United Sates, Canada, Ireland, Australia and New Zealand, are some of the freest and richest countries on the planet. The Anglosphere (as Neal Stephenson called it in his 1995 science fiction novel ‘The Diamond Age’) is made up of half a billion people and is responsible for almost a third of the world’s production and military spending. And this of course underestimates its cultural influence elsewhere, since its democratic and market-based system has spread around the world. Bad English is the world’s most common language. But it is highly unlikely that Britian would ever have become the birthplace of this age of progress if it weren’t for the fact that in the laste seventeenth century it had been defeated and fundamentally transformed by a colossal Dutch invasion.” (pg. 346, Ch. 7)
“Ages become golden because they imitate and innovate…. Openness to the rest of the world gave these cultures access to power of other people’s brains, habits, and skills, and so broadened their ideas of what is possible. They all chose different strategies to achieve this. Athenian, Italian, and Dutch merchants picked up new ideas on business trips. Rome absorbed more methods and peoples by conquest than foreign trade, and the Abbasids actively sponsored a translation project to lay their hands on the world’s knowledge. But they were all heavily reliant on trade, migration, and intellectual exchange… But there is a limit to how far imitation can get you. To make this progress self-propelling and really usher in a golden age, these cultures had to combine these new ideas and inputs with their own thoughts and methods to create innovations, from higher agricultural yields to artistic rebellions. This takes inclusivity back home. People have to be allowed and encouraged o test their own ways of doing things, even when the elite or the majority finds it uncomfortable. You also need lots of people. All of these cultures were highly urbanized. One prerequisite for inclusivity is the rule of law, so that people are not governed by the whims of individual rulers, but by predictable rules, applied equally to the whole population. No civilization did this perfectly. They all practiced slavery and they did not treat women as citizens with equal rights, but, compared with other cultures, earlier and contemporary, they were much more inclusive, and that made a difference… The other requisites for inclusivity are free markets and free minds… The golden ages in this book… all provided a much higher degree of economic freedom and intellectual freedom than other contemporary civilizations…. They simply put more ideas and business models on the table, and therefore had a greater chance to find successful ones. The progress became self-sustaining because, at a certain point, it started transforming the self-identity of these civilizations. When more people started realizing what could be done, it encouraged a broader culture of optimism, energy, and vigour… However, eventually, the Great Status Quo Filter came for all these golden ages… A crisis often created an urge to retreat to something familiar, like some imagined good old days, fixed economic relationships and an unvarnished faith. All these golden ages experienced a death-to-Socrates moment, when they soured on their previous commitment to open intellectual exchange and abandoned curiosity for control… The new orthodoxies were often upheld by rulers who started centralizing societies and undermining the rule of law.” (pp. 431-435)
This book and review
First full skim of book was 20260123
Second detailed reread was from 20251123 to 20260319.
Started writing the review on 20260406 and finished on 20260504.
Additional Notes
Question? Comments?
Wish the author had started with a golden age story for Africa and out of Africa – the dawn of the human species perhaps. Of course, without ancient artifacts from that period, how could a golden age story be told? Still a bit more weaving stories of individuals, civilizations, and perhaps species would have been of interest to me.