The Golden Thread: A History of the Western Tradition, by James Hankins and Allen C. Guelzo

The Ancient World and Christendom.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to the WBZ book Club. This is Jordan Rich.
If you're of a certain age, you remember taking Western
sieve at least in high school maybe college. Over the
last couple of decades, Western civilization is not being taught
as it used to be. But two academic writers, Alan
Gelzo and James Hankins, historians at Princeton and Harvard, respectively,
are developing a two volume history redefining how students and

(00:22):
the rest of us encounter the Western tradition. In volume one,
and by the way, these are huge books, very heavy,
a study of the ancient world in Christendom, where Western
tradition got its start, from the enduring legacies of Rome
to the spiritual and intellectual development during the medieval days.
In Golden Thread Volume two, the modern and contemporary West,
they'll focus on the Renaissance in Europe, the Protestant Reformation,

(00:45):
ultimately the lead up to the American Revolution, and the
twentieth century World Wars, in which the West faced perhaps
its greatest challenges from tyrants. A huge and important book,
The Golden Thread, a History of the Western Tradition. And
that's the book Club. WBZ Boston's newsrate Yal