And since it's a reader's blog, I think I'll start by mentioning what I'm reading now: Rome & Jerusalem: the clash of Ancient Civilizations by Martin Goodman. It's a surprisingly easy read: the author seems to have a knack for turning historical facts into an entertaining narrative, while never writing down to his audience. As I progressed through the book - 119 pages to go! - it became apparent that what Goodman was describing were two of the main sources of modern western civilisation. He compares two ways of viewing the world - Roman and Jewish - in the 1st century AD, and their modern counterparts, secular and religious, still clearly create tensions in society today.
There are also some surprising resonances with modern current events: it's hard not to compare Goodman's description of Rome 2,000 years ago with America today when he writes that Romans commonly thought of all their wars as defensive wars, and that for the ordinary Roman citizen war was "like watching a story, the bloodshed kept at a safe emotional distance". One wonders if Goodman is not reading the present into the past somewhat.
