The Awakening: A History of the Western Mind AD 500 - 1700

The Awakening is a combination of history, philosophy and science, and how, since the 5th century, rationalism has reasserted itself against faith and dogma.Given its subject matter, one would expect the book to be a difficult read. But far from it. It reads beautifully throughout, and, chapter by chapter, I found myself getting more and more absorbed into the story. Indeed, I learned a great deal from this text.In short, The Awakening is a book that I would place alongside Bertrand Russell’s History of Western Philosophy, and like with Russell’s text, whenever I feel the need to read some wonderfully written, elucidating prose, I shall return to Freeman’s book.I hope you find my review helpful.

This is a very important book and for every reason. It explains how the, known as, Western though has developed since the fall of the Roman Empire until the Enlightment; or from myth, legend, tradition and, importantly, religion, to reason. We humans take for granted now why a volcano erupts or the pleace of the earth in the solar system. And we know this thanks to the brilliant minds that looked for better explanations to what they saw around them along the centuries.This books tells the trip from years 400 to 1700, and what could have been very easily a bore is a delight. With almost as much passion as knowledge, the author carries on with a titanic effort to make easy what's deep, thick and long. And this is the other triumph of this tome: that it reads as a thriller, a page-turner.At over 700 pages the book is long but patly because of the good prose of the author, partly because of the magnificent and numerous pictures (about one fith of the book), it is an easy read.Italy, an obvious personal passion of the author, is everywhere, almost in every chapter; and deservedly so with its array of artists, writers, politicians and despots influencingeveryone that comes near them. But at the core of the book is the long tension within the center of that small peninsula West of Asia (Europe) and how this competence, often fierce, between territories gave birth to the Western mind.Flawless and for the ages, Awakenings is already a classic.

Simply superb. If I could give this book more than 5 stars I would. The second book by Charles Freeman I have read and the best so far.Staggering breadth of subject matter containing much historic detail told in readable English.Includes:- classical transnission- scientific evolution- theological evolution- political evolution and- cultural evolution.There is no doubt that I will read this again. It takes time to absorb but is worth every minute. Sad to finish.

a beautiful and well written book, a joy to read!

This book is an astonishing achievement – first, the sheer scale of the enterprise: 1200 years of controversy, innovation and strife, much of it accessible only through multiple “dead” languages, fragmentary documentation, dubious copying and conjectural translation - then, the scope: definition, analysis, evaluation, theology, philosophy, archaeology, history, cartography, astronomy, culture, sociology, education, art, architecture.The author’s ability to assemble this quantity of material, assimilate it, remember where he put it, and then pull it all together in his habitual clear accessible prose, leaves me reeling with admiration.“Awakening” is a harder task to grapple with than his previous work: “The Closing of the Wester Mind”; the growing tree of human thinking puts out branches and shoots in exponential fashion and he has had to stretch a giant net to give each twig due weight, whereas “Closing” was heading down a narrowing funnel towards a discernible end-point. Before I started to read, I felt a slight disappointment that it was going to end at 1700, as I was looking forward to the possibilities for spectacular narrative in the Darwin controversies of the C19. However,, by about p.600 I realised how very sensible it was to leave the readers where he did, after many centuries of false starts, unsound concepts, blind alleys, false prophets, mixed motives, and self-nourishing controversies, western civilisation, perhaps steeled by the trials that had gone before, eventually ready to embrace the advances that the C18 and C19 held in store. A final tribute: I am impressed by the balance of this whole work. He manages to treat the broad spectrum of thought and belief, always putting clarification and understanding first and letting evaluation be evidence-led, while keeping a proper distance with his personal judgments. I should also say that the book is stunningly produced; the wealth of beautiful illustrations genuinely illuminate the text with their detailed marginal notes in red. I love the bold chapter-numbers and the well-chosen quotes which signal the content or tease one’s curiosity. The marker-ribbon a really useful touch.