Dominion Audiobook By Tom Holland, Nassim Nicholas Taleb cover art

Dominion

The Making of the Western Mind

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Dominion

By: Tom Holland, Nassim Nicholas Taleb
Narrated by: Mark Meadows, Tom Holland
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About this listen

Christianity is the most enduring and influential legacy of the ancient world, and its emergence the single most transformative development in Western history. Even the increasing number in the West today who have abandoned the faith of their forebears, and dismiss all religion as pointless superstition, remain recognisably its heirs. Seen close-up, the division between a sceptic and a believer may seem unbridgeable. Widen the focus, though, and Christianity's enduring impact upon the West can be seen in the emergence of much that has traditionally been cast as its nemesis: in science, in secularism, and yes, even in atheism.

That is why Dominion will place the story of how we came to be what we are, and how we think the way that we do, in the broadest historical context. Ranging in time from the Persian invasion of Greece in 480 BC to the on-going migration crisis in Europe today, and from Nebuchadnezzar to the Beatles, it will explore just what it was that made Christianity so revolutionary and disruptive; how completely it came to saturate the mind-set of Latin Christendom; and why, in a West that has become increasingly doubtful of religion's claims, so many of its instincts remain irredeemably Christian. The aim is twofold: to make the reader appreciate just how novel and uncanny were Christian teachings when they first appeared in the world; and to make ourselves, and all that we take for granted, appear similarly strange in consequence. We stand at the end-point of an extraordinary transformation in the understanding of what it is to be human: one that can only be fully appreciated by tracing the arc of its parabola over millennia.©2019 Tom Holland (P)2019 Hachette Audio UK
Ancient Church & Church Leadership Ancient History

Critic reviews

Terrific: bold, ambitious and passionate (Peter Frankopan, author of The Silk Roads)
Tom Holland is fun to read, monstrously erudite, wickedly joyful, and ahead of the established consensus, on average, by four years, three months, and two days (Nassim Nicholas Taleb, author of the Incerto (The Black Swan, Antifragile...))
This extraordinary book is vintage Tom Holland: history boldly and elegantly retold, with fascinating interconnections traced to create a narrative that cannot fail to stimulate, for it leads to a never-ending question (Diarmaid MacCulloch)
Fizzing with insights and challenges, this is one history book that is timely and important, as well as a feast of intellectual entertainment (Christopher Hart)
A rich and compelling history of Christendom . . . A masterpiece of scholarship and storytelling, Dominion surpasses Holland's earlier books in its sweeping ambition and gripping presentation (John Gray)
[Holland encapsulates] so much, so intelligently and entertainingly, in a book that's fizzing with ideas (Andrew Lycett)

Tom Holland's stupendous new book . . . There isn't a page of this magnificent book that does not contain some fascinating detail and the narrative is held together with a novelist's eye for character and theme (Tim Stanley)

A brilliant meditation on how Christianity in its Latin and Protestant forms entirely changed the way humans conceive life and their relationship to each other (Helen Thompson)

What listeners say about Dominion

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Gripping Storytelling Encompassing Story Interesting Tidbits Insightful Work Magnificent History
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A comprehensive history of Christendom

Gripping storytelling, precise and ever encompassing - the story of Christendom as a myth and reality that spans milennia. Best history book I have read.

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Too much to understand and learn.

Remarkable book. The finals remarks from im Holland are a clever ending to the story.

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Wow

Eye opening and decently thorough considering the scope of history this book is covering. definitely recommend.

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Interesting argument on the history of Secularism

Tom Holland makes an interesting argument for the intertwined history of Secularism and Christianity. In Dominion by showing the roots of the modern world in those of the early church, Mr Holland makes the point that concepts about society and justice that the modern world take to be self evident were far from it when Christianity was born.

It's an argument that many people both conservative and liberal I am sure will both find aspects that both clash and reflect their own worldview. An outlook both snowflakey and problematic. In this way it is in itself a reflection that the current culture war in the west is a civil war that stretches back to early Christendom. A civil war between people who fundamentally believe in the power of love and mercy.

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great work of scholarship

magnificient story telling
great insight into contemporary culture
a great work of scholarship for lay people

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This one not his best

I have read it listened to every book written by Tom Holland, truly a great historian and I have never been disappointed but this one is a bit too rambling, a bit too anecdotal and well, too LONG. Many of its assertions are interesting but remain assertions, many connections inspired but not demonstrated. The last three hours or so the 20th century truly taxed my patience, hopping here and there while endlessly pontificating...I wish I could like it better but I just can’t. Once it left the first Millenium A.D it just lost its way.

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